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•YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


THEIR  PLACE  IN  THE  GERMANIC  YEAR 


BY 


ALEXANDER    XILLE,    Ph.D. 

LECTURER   IN  GERMAN   LANGUAGE  AND   LITERATURE   IN  THE   UNIVERSITY  OF  GLASGOW 


DAVID   NUTT,    270-271    STRAND,    LONDON 
1899 


^^HBHAL 


I  7S77f 

Only  two  hundred  copies  of  this  book  are  for  sale 


GLASGOW  !    PRINTED  AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
BY  ROBERT   MACLEHOSE  AND  CO, 


THIS    BOOK    IS    DEDICATED    TO 
MY    DEAR    FRIEND, 

GEORGE    NEILSON, 

AUTHOR   OF    "trial   BY  COMBAT,"    "  PEEL  ;    ITS   MEANING   AND   DERIVATION," 
"  CAUDATUS  ANGLICUS,"  ETC.,   ETC 

TO    WHOSE    PERSONAL    ASSISTANCE,    LEARNING,    AND    LIBRARY 

IT  OWES   MORE  THAN  TO  ANY   SOURCE  REFERRED 

TO    IN    THE    TEXT    OR    NOTES. 


175779 


PREFACE 

This  book  treats  of  the  problems  connected  with  the  Germanic  year — the 
three-score-day  tide  of  Yule,  the  Germanic  adoption  of  the  Roman 
calendar,  and  the  introduction  of  the  festival  of  Christ's  Nativity  into  a 
part  of  the  German  year,  which  till  then  had  apparently  been  without 
a  festivity.  It  traces  the  revolution  brought  about  by  these  events, 
in  custom,  belief,  and  legend  up  to  the  fourteenth  century.  By  that 
time,  the  Author  believes,  most  of  the  fundamental  features  which  go 
towards  the  making  of  modern  Christmas  had  already  come  to  have  their 
centre  in  the  25th  day  of  December. 

Five  chapters    of  the   present  book — but  somewhat  shortened — appear 
simultaneously  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Glasgow  Archmological  Society. 

ALEXANDER   TILLE. 


2  Strathmore  Gardens,  Hillhead, 
Glasgow,  March,  1899. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I.  The  Germanic  Year, 

II.  The  Beginning  of  the  Anglo-German  Year,  , 

III.  The  Feast  of  Martinmas, 

IV.  Martinmas,  and  the  Tri-Partition  of  the  Year, 
V.  Martinmas,  and  the  Dual  Division  of  the  Year 

VI.  Martinmas  and  Michaelmas, 

VII.  Solstices  and  Equinoxes,     . 

VIII.  The  Calends  of  January, 

IX.  Tabula  Fortunae,  .... 

X.  The  Nativity  of  Christ, 

XI.  Beda,  De  Mensibus  Anglorum,   . 

XII.  Nativity,  Christes  M^ss,  and  Christmas, 

XIII.  The  Scandinavian  Year, 

XIV.  Scandinavian  Offering  Tides,    .       ... 
XV.  Scandinavian  Yule, 

XVI.  Results, 


I 

24 

34 

49 

57 

71 

81 

107 

119 

138 

158 

177 

189 

200 

214 


YULE    AND    CHRISTMAS: 

THEIR  PLACE  IN  THE  GERMANIC  YEAR. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE   GERMANIC  YEAR. 

The  oldest  descriptive  remark  on  the  mode  in  which  the  Germanics  divided 
their  year  is  exactly  eighteen  hundred  years  old.  It  is  found  in  the 
Germania  of  Tacitus,  which,  in  all  probability,  was  written  a.d.  98,  and 
runs  thus  :  "  They  do  not  divide  the  year  into  so  many  seasons  as  we  do. 
Only  winter,  spring,  and  summer  have  a  name  and  a  meaning  among  them ; 
the  name  of  autumn  they  know  as  little  as  its  gifts."  ^  It  plainly  means 
that  the  Germans  of  the  first  century  of  our  era  divided  their  year  into 
three  seasons,  the  names  of  which  cannot,  of  course,  have  exactly  corre- 
sponded to  the  Latin  terms,  htems,  ver,  and  aestas,  each  covering  a  quarter 
of  a  year.  This  statement  has  been  assailed  from  various  sides,  and  for 
various  reasons,  even  Jacob  Grimm  expressing  his  belief  that  it  was  based 
on  some  misconception  by  Tacitus.^  He  understood  Tacitus  to  refer  solely 
to  the  meaning  of  the  words,  and  remarked  that  the  Romans  did  not  use 

^  Germania,  chap,  xxvi.,  "  Unde  annum  quoque  ipsum  non  in  totidem  digerunt  species  : 
hiems  et  ver  et  aestas  intellectum  et  vocabula  habent ;  autumni  perinde  nomen  et  bona 
ignorantur." 

^Deutsche  Mythologie,  p.  717. 

A 


3  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

the  name  of  atitumnus  for  the  harvest  of  grain,  but  for  the  gathering  of 
fruit,  vintage,  and  after-math,  things  which  were  at  that  time  unknown  to 
the  Germans.  But  such  a  view  is  scarcely  tenable.  For  Tacitus  speaks 
decidedly  of  the  seasons  as  such,  and  in  the  case  of  autumnus,  at  the  non- 
existence of  which  the  Romans  might  wonder,  he  makes  an  explanatory  and 
rather  melancholy  observation.  In  course  of  time,  on  a  closer  study  of 
the  questions  connected  with  the  Germanic  partition  of  the  year,  extensive 
material  has  been  discovered  which  undoubtedly  goes  to  support  Tacitus. 
Grimm  himself  lived  to  collect  part  of  it,  and  to  admit  that  he  had  been 
wrong.^ 

Another  scholar  has  told  us  that  he  knows  better  than  Tacitus,  and  that 
the  ancient  Germans  had  the  word  herbst,  with  the  meaning  "  time  of  fruits." 
But  that  word  seems  to  have  meant  originally,  just  like  English  harvest, 
the  act  of  reaping  the  ripe  grain  and  fruits,  and  not  the  time  of  their 
ripeness,  though  it  was  later  used  to  denote  the  period  of  bringing  in  the 
harvest.  Considerations  of  that  kind  can  as  little  influence  our  judgment 
V  on   Tacitus'   report   as   can   the    fact    that   we   are    unable   to   say   exactly 

which  German  word  he  meant  to  correspond  with  Latin  ver,  spring ;  for 
spring,  lent  (German  Lenz),  and  Friihling  are,  as  is  generally  admitted,  of 
later  growth. 

The  tri-partition  of  the  Germanic  year  is  an  unshakable  fact.  It  has 
been  preserved  for  a  very  long  time  on  legal  ground.  The  three  seasons 
answer  to  the  three  not-ordered  law  courts,  i.e.,  the  three  annual  legal 
meetings  which  were  fixed  by  tradition  and  not  called  by  special  royal 
ordinance.  This  fact  is  even  admitted  by  Professor  Weinhold  of  Berlin  in 
his  book  on  the  German  division  of  the  year,  who,  on  the  whole,  takes 
the  view  that  the  Germanics,  just  like  the  Romans,  quartered  their  year 
according  to  solstices  and  equinoxes.^  Professor  Weinhold,  however,  there 
concedes  so  much  as  to  acknowledge  that  those  law  courts  were  originally 
held  at  the  beginning  of  winter,  in  spring,  and  about  midsummer :  whilst 
later  the   beginning  of  winter,  midwinter,  spring;   midwinter,  Easter,  mid- 


^  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,   Leipzig,   1848,  Vol.   L,  p.  74. 
^  Uber  die  deutsche  Jahrteilung,  Kiel,   1862,  p.  8. 


THE  GERMANIC  YEAR  3 

summer ;  and  February,  May,  autumn,  took  the  place  of  those  terms- 
Professor  Weinhold  gives  ^  proofs  for  the  several  cases.  Others  agree  with 
him  in  this  proposition.  So  the  greatest  German  authority  on  chronology, 
Grotefend,  says :  ^  *'  The  tri-partition  of  the  year  has  been  preserved 
almost  exclusively  in  juridical  relations,  and  there  finds  its  principal  appli- 
cation in  the  so-called  dreidinge,  echteitdinge,  echtendage,  or  eiting,  the 
not-ordered  law  court  of  the  country,  which  was  held  at  three  terms  in 
the  year.  The  terms  vary,  though  with  a  general  prevalence  of  midwinter 
(or  beginning  of  winter),  Easter,  and  midsummer  (also  the  Twelve-nights, 
Easter,  and  Pentecost,  or  St.  John's  day),  the  basis  of  the  tri-partition  being 
a  division  of  the  year  into  winter,  spring,  and  summer." 

The  capitulary  of  Louis  the  Pious,  of  817,  ordains  "/«  anno  tria 
solummodo  generalia  plactda"^  which,  of  course,  can  only  be  taken  as  a 
codification  of  existing  law,  and  not  as  a  creation  of  a  new  jurisdiction. 
This  usage  lived  on  till  at  least  the  fifteenth  century.^  The  fact  of  the 
early  existence  of  three  German  annual  law  courts  is  so  generally  admitted 
that  it  is  an  exception  for  any  authority  to  disagree.  And  even  those  who 
disagree  have  to  account  for  a  number  of  important  indisputable  facts.  So 
Pfannenschmid,^  believing  that  there  were  four  Germanic  law  assemblies 
annually,  finds  it  extremely  strange  that  far  more  frequently  only  three  such 
assemblies  are  enumerated,  and  that  the  examples  of  four  assemblies  are 
both  rarer  and  later  than  those  of  three. 

In  Anglo-Saxon  times  the  tri-partition  of  the  year  was  preserved  in 
the  mode  of  paying  the  wages  of  female  servants,  who  received  a  sheep 
for  the  feast  at  the  beginning  of  winter,  a  measure  of  beans  for  the  mid- 
lent    dinner    (Sunday   Jnvocavit),    and    whey    '  on    siimera '    (corresponding 


^  C/l>er  die  deutsche  Jahrteilung,  Kiel,   1862,  pp.    18,   19. 

^  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,   1891,  p.  90,  Jahreszeitefi. 

^  Sohm,  Fr'dnkische  Keichs-  und  G eric  htsverf as  sung,  p.   398. 

*  "  1407  in  unsen  geheygeden  gerichten  to  Luneborch  drie  des  jares  to  den  eddagen  " 
(Centralarchiv  zu  Oldenburg),  Grotefend,  Zeiirechnung,  II.,  2,  194,  Hannover  und 
Leipzig,   1898. 

*  Germanische  Erntefeste,   1878,  p.  338.  . 


^ 


4  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

to  Old  Icelandic  ^ at  sumri^  i.e.,  June  9),  which  is  about  July  lo.^  It  not 
only  appears  from  the  value  of  the  gifts  mentioned  that  the  gift  for  the 
winter  feast  was  the  largest,  but  besides  the  enumeration  of  the  three  terms 
begins  with  that  term,  as  the  old  Germanic,  and  so  late  as  in  the  eleventh 
century  the  economic,  year  began  with  it.^ 

In  the  thirteenth  century  three  terms  existed  in  some  districts  of  Eng- 


^  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  436,  7,  "Rectitude  Ancillae  :  Uni  ancillae  Vlll.  pondia 
annonae  ad  victum.  i.  ovis  vel  III.  denarios,  ad  hiemale  companagium,  i.  sester  fabae  ad 
quadragesimalem  convictum.  In  estate  suum  hweig  vel  i.  denaiium  ;  Be  Wifmonna 
Metsunge.  Dheowan  wifmen  viii.  pund  comes  to  mete,  i.  sceap  odhdhe  11 1.  peningas  to 
winter-sufle,  l.  syster  beana  to  Isengten-sufle.  hwseig  on  sumera  odhdhe  l.  pening." 

2  Male  servants  also  received  three  such  gifts  a  year  [Ibid.,  I.,  436,  7:  "Omnibus 
ehtemannis  jure  competit  Natalis  firma,  et  Paschalis  sulhsecer,  id  est,  carruce  acra,  et 
manipulus  Augusti  in  augmentum  jure  debiti  recti ;  Eallum  gehte-mannum  gebyredh  Mid- 
winter feorm.  and  Eastor-feorm  sulh-aecer.  and  hserfest-handful.  to-eacan  heora  nyd-rihte  "), 
though  two  of  the  terms  for  these  had,  in  the  eleventh  century,  shifted  to  the  two  Christian 
festivals,  Christmas  and  Easter,  while  the  third  had,  in  the  same  direction,  moved  onwards 
to  August.  The  payment  of  shepherds'  wages  is  regulated  not  so  much  by  an  old 
tri-partition  of  the  year  as  by  the  development  of  sheep  during  the  year  [Ibid.,  I.,  438,  9  : 
"  Pastoris  ovium  rectum  est,  ut  habeat  dingiam  xii.  noctium  in  Natali  Domini,  et  i.  agnum 
de  juventute  hornotina,  et  l.  belflis,  id  est,  timpani  vellus,  et  lac  gregis  sui,  Vli.  noctibus 
ante  equinoctium,  et  blede,  id  est,  cuppam  plenam  mesgui  de  siringia,  tota  estate  ;  Sceap- 
hyrdes  riht  is  that  he  hsebbe  twelf  nihta  dhingan  to  Middan-wintra.  and  i.  lamb  of  geares 
geogedhe.  and  I.  bel-flys.  and  his  heorde  meolc  Vll.  niht  sefter  emnihtes  dsege.  and  blede  fulle 
hweges  odhdhe  syringe  ealne  sumor"),  just  as  the  payment  of  goatherds  is  [Ibid.,  I.,  438,  9  : 
"  Caprarius  convenit  lac  gregis  sui  post  festum  Sancti  Martini,  et  an  tea  pars  sua  mesgui,  et 
capricum  anniculum,  si  bene  custodiat  gregem  suum ;  Be  Gat-hyrde.  Gat-hyrde  gebyredh  his 
heorde  meolc  ofer  Martinus  msesse  dseig.  and  ser  dham  his  dsel  hwasges.  and  i.  ticcen  of  geares 
geogodhe.  gif  he  his  heorde  wel  begymedh  ").  The  dinners  given  to  the  farm  servants  varied 
considerably  about  1030,  being  held  partly  at  the  two  Christian  festivals,  Christmas  and  Easter, 
partly  at  other  times  [Ibid.,  I.,  p.  440,  i  :  "In  quibusdam  locis  datur  firma  Natalis 
Domini,  et  firma  Paschalis,  et  firma  precum  ad  congregandas  segetes,  et  gutfirma  ad 
arandum,  et  firma  pratorum  fenandorum  et  hreaccroppum,  id  est,  macoli  summitas,  et 
firma  ad  macolum  faciendum.  In  terra  nemorosa,  lignum  plaustri ;  in  terra  uberi,  caput 
macholi :  et  alia  plurima  fuerint  a  pluribus,  quorum  hoc  viaticum  sit,  et  quod  supra  diximus  ; 
on  sumere  [in  some  !]  dheode  gebyredh  winter-feorm.  Easter-feorm.  ben-form  for  ripe,  gyt- 
feorm  for  yrdhe  msedh-med  hreac-mete.  aet  wudu-lade  wsen-treow.  set  corn-lade  hreac-copp. 
and  fela  dhinga  de  ic  getellan  ne  mgeig.  Dhis  is  dheah  myngung  manna  biwiste  and  eal  that 
ic  ser  beforan  ymberehte  "). 


THE  GERMANIC  YEAR  5 

land.^  On  German  ground  it  is  the  very  same.  To  give  at  least  one 
instance,  which  covers  both  the  law  courts  and  the  terms  of  payment  from 
the  twelfth  century:  on  Jan.  9,  1106,  Archbishop  Frederick  I.  of  Cologne 
fixed  at  14  solidi  the  fee  to  be  paid  to  the  provost  of  Gerresheim  on  each 
of  the  three  annual  law-days. ^ 

However  well  established  these  facts  are,  etymology  cannot  be  adduced 
in  favour  of  an  ancient  tri-partition  of  the  Germanic  year ;  ancient  names 
of  three  ancient  seasons  cannot  be  given  ;  nay,  etymology  decidedly 
points  to  a  dual  division.^  We  have,  therefore,  to  accept  this  as  a  fact, 
as  well  warranted  as  the  tri-partition  of  the  economic  year  itself.  Whilst 
no  other  Aryan  language  possesses  the  same  terms  denoting  a  period  of 
about  a  hundred  and  eighty  days,  all  Germanic  languages  have  in  common 
the  two  words  winter  and  summer,  whilst  there  is  no  third  season-name 
to  join  them.  Nay,  even  more :  the  word  winter  appears  in  no  Aryan 
language  except  the  Germanic,  all  other  Aryan  languages  using  for  the 
denomination  of  the  coldest  season  of  the  year  a  word  from  a  root  ghitn 
ighiem)  which  means  snow  or  storm  (Greek  x^V*"'))  so  that  we  have  Latin 
hiems,  Greek  x^'-H-^^,  Old  Bulgarian  and  Zend  zima,  Sanskrit  hhnanta.  We 
know  of  no  root  from  which  winter  might  be  derived,  the  derivation  from 
wind  being  excluded  on  philological  grounds.  With  the  word  summer  it 
is  not  much  different.  It  appears  in  all  Germanic  languages  as  the  name 
of  the  warmer  half  of  the  year,  but  exists  in  no  other  Aryan  language, 
notwithstanding  that  words  from  the  same  root,  though  formed  by  means 
of  other  suffixes  and  having  a  similar  or  the  same  significance,  are  found 
in  several  of  them,  such  as  Sanskrit  samd,  year ;  Zend  hama,  summer ; 
Armenian  amarn,  summer ;    Cymric  ham,  haf,  summer. 


^Nasse,  Uber  mittelalterliche  Feldgemeinschaft  in  England,  Bonn,  1869,  p.  51,  Ur- 
barium  of  the  Monastery  of  Worcester  of  the  thirteenth  century,  fol.  103''  :  "In  hoc 
manerio  sunt  8  virgatae  servilis  conditionis,  quarum  quaelibet,  si  censat,  dabit  ad  quemlibet 
trium  terminorum  \2^  pro  omni  servitio,  ut  dicunt." 

^Kessel,  Der  selige  Gerrich,  Stifter  der  Abtei  Gerresheim,  Diisseldorf,   1877,  p.   187. 

^On  the  dual  division  of  the  original  Aryan  year,  compare  O.  Schrader,  Die  aelteste 
Zeitteilung  des  indogermanischen  Volkes,  Berlin,  Habel,  1878,  pp.  II  ss.,  where  the 
etymological  parallels  of  hiems  and  ver  are  given. 


6  -  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

When  Hildebrand,  in  the  Old-High-German  Hildebrandslied,  describes 
his  thirty  years'  wanderings,  he  says : 

"Ih  wall6ta  sumaro  enti  wintro  sehstic  ur  lante;"^ 

Anglo-Saxon  legal  language  having  the  same  phrase.  So  the  laws  of  Ine 
provide  that  the  wife  of  a  ceorl  who  died,  if  she  has  a  child,  should  be 
given,  in  addition  to  vi.  shillings,  "a  cow  in  summer  and  an  ox  in  winter";^ 
also  that  a  ceorl's  close  ought  to  be  fenced  winter  and  summer.^  These 
two  names  do  not  stand  alone  as  the  supports  of  a  dual  division ;  there  is 
a  number  of  other  phrases  which  show  that  the  dual  division  of  the  year 
was  extremely  familiar  to  the  Germanic  mind.  To  denote  the  whole 
course  of  a  year,  especially  in  legal  language,  the  terms  were  used  :  iin 
rise  und  im  love,^  im  ruwen  und  im  bloten,^  and  bi  stro  and  bi  grase.^ 

Etymology  shows  that  the  dual  division  of  the  year  was  of  Aryan 
home  growth ;  and  the  very  fact  that  etymology  fails  as  to  the  tri-partition 
goes  a  long  way  to  prove  that  the  tri-partition  is  of  foreign  extraction.  It 
certainly  is  so,  and,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  it  is  of  Egyptian  origin, 
although  it  was  taken  over  by  the  Aryans  very  early,  perhaps  even  at 
the  time  before  they  divided  into  self-dependent  tribes  which  evolved 
idioms  of  their  own.  Ewald  sums  up  his  investigations  as  to  the  division 
of  the  Oriental  year  as  follows:^  "People  in  those  countries  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  according  to  all  evidence,  had  at  first  three  equal  seasons.  These 
were  fixed  in  the  most  ancient  Egyptian  almanac,  and  according  to  that 
fact  in  the  hieroglyphic  writings,  the  four  months  of  each  of  these  seasons 

^Braune,  Althochdeutsches  Lesebuch,  Halle,  1881,  p.  77.  A  St.  Gall  document  of 
A.D.  858  mentions  two  brothers,  Wintar  and  Suniar  (O.  Schrader,  Die  aelteste  Zeitteihmg 
des  itidogermanischen  Volkes,  Berlin,  Habel,  1878,  p.  18).  On  the  combats  between 
Winter  and  Summer,  compare  Uhland's  Volkslieder.  Prof.  Max  Mliller's  attempts  to  show 
in  Greek  legends  a  great  number  of  similar  traits  seem  to  me  to  be  rather  bold. 

"^Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  of  England  (ed.  by  Thorpe),  London,  1840,  I.,  p.  126, 
xxxviii.  :    "  cu  on  sumera.  oxan  on  wintra. " 

^  Ibid.,  p.   126,  XV.:    "wintres  ond  sumeres." 

^  Grimm,  Deutsche  RechtsaltertUmer ,  III.,  256,  258.  ^  Ibid.,  III.,  249. 

'^ Ibid.,  III.,  31,  62,  130,  190,  223;  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittel- 
alters,  I.,  77. 

"^  Die  Altertiimer  des  Volkes  Israel,  3rd.  ed.,  pp,  455,  456. 


The  GERMANIC  VEAR 


7 


being  very  simply  counted  as  the  first,  the  second,  etc."^  About  the 
earliest  Indian  year  Grimm  remarks  t^  "In  earliest  antiquity  the  year  seems 
to  have  been  divided  into  three  parts  only,  the  Indians  distinguishing  either 
vasanta,  spring ;  grisckma,  summer ;  and  sarad,  raining  time ;  or,  according 
to  the  oldest  commentator  of  the  Veda:  grischma,  summer;  varscha,  raining 
time ;  hema?ita,  winter ;  and  elsewhere  six  seasons.  The  Greeks  had  ca/a, 
spring;  Oepos,  summer;  xei[jLu>v,  winter."  The  early  Aryans,  like  the  Orientals 
in  general,  subdivided  their  three  large  seasons  into  six  smaller,  of  the 
duration  of  about  three-score  days  each.  Ewald,  after  the  passage  just 
quoted,  goes  on  to  say:^  "A  further  step  was  to  divide  each  of  the  three 
seasons  into  halves  and  so  count  six  seasons.  This  habit  became  law  in 
ancient  India,  as  is  shown  by  Kalidasa's  Ritusanhara,  but  it  must  also 
have  once  been  prevalent  in  Syriac  and  Arabic  countries.  The  proof  of 
this  is  the  fact  that,  in  the  Syriac  as  well  as  in  the  Arabic  almanac, 
frequently  two  subsequent  months  are  distinguished  as  the  first  and  second 
of  the  same  'tide,'  and  that  tide  after  which  they  are  called  is  evidently 
a  season.  The  distinction  between  a  first  and  second  month  according  to 
such  seasons  has,  it  is  true,  only  effect  when  the  months,  at  least  in 
principle,  are  at  the  same  time  calculated  by  means  of  the  solar  year.  But, 
as  we  know,  that  was  the  case  pretty  early."^ 

These  very  same  three-score-day  tides  are  found  among  the  Germanics, 
Eastern  and  Western.  But  the  strange  fact  that  no  satisfactory  Germanic 
or  even  Aryan  etymology  can  be  given  for  the  oldest  names  of  Germanic 
three-score-day  tides,  Jiuleis  (Gothic),  Lida,  Hlyda  (Anglo-Saxon),  and  per- 
haps Rheda,  Hreda  (Anglo-Saxon),  and  Hornung,  Horowunc  (German),  seems 


^  Lepsius,   Chronologic  der  Aegypter,  I.,  p.   134. 

^  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,   1848,  I.,  p.  72.  ^ Ibid.,  p.  456. 

■•O.  Schrader  is  the  first  to  avoid  the  presupposition  that  the  early  Aryans  based 
their  partition  of  the  year  on  a  knowledge  of  the  stars.  He  did  so  with  full  consciousness 
(O.  Schrader,  Die  aelteste  Zeitteilung  des  indogermanischen  Volkes,  Berlin,  Ilabel,  1878, 
pp.  24),  32,  and  expressly  says  that  the  three  roots  used  for  denoting  sun  in  the  Aryan 
languages  contain  no  element  referring  in  any  way  to  time  or  partition  of  time,  whilst  as 
regards  the  moon  he  attributes  to  her  merely  a  secondary  rank  in  that  respect,  and  remarks 
that  the  origin  of  the  months  dates  from  no  earlier  period  than  the  time  when  the  Aryan 
tribe  had  split  into  several  peoples. 


8  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

to  point  to  the  probability  that  these  names,  like  the  institutions  they  denote, 
have  their  origin  beyond  the  world  of  the  Aryan  family  of  languages  and 
nations,  and  were  borrowed  from  Egyptian  and  Syriac,  or  some  other 
Oriental  language,  together  with  the  six  three-score-day  tides  which  formed 
the  course  of  a  year.  This  probability  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  Gothic 
Jiuleis  in  the  forms  lAaios,  tovAaios,  lovXirjos,  and  IovXlo<s  is  found  to  denote 
the  time  from  Dec.  22  to  Jan.  23  in  old  Cyprus,^  which  can  scarcely  be 
ascribed  to  chance.  It  is  Jacob  Grimm's  merit  to  have  gathered  a  number 
of  important  facts  which  show  the  same  habit  to  have  prevailed  among 
several  Aryan  tribes,  including  the  Germanics. 

"Stress  is  to  be  laid,"  says  he,^  "on  the  connection  of  two  (or  even 
three)  subsequent  months  through  the  same  name,  which  connection  seems 
to  be  a  relic  of  an  original  partition  of  the  whole  of  the  year  into  six  (or 
four)  2  parts.  Thus,  among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  there  appeared  a  double 
/td/ia  for  the  pair  June-July,  which  elsewhere  also  appears  bound  together 
as  brachot-houwot,  or  the  two  resatlle-mois,  and  a  double  geola.  Thus,  in 
Middle-High-German,  there  appears  a  double  oiigest,  a  double  wintermonat, 
(a  threefold  herbstmonat).  January  and  February  are  even  much  later 
singled  out  as  the  large  and  the  small  horn;  nay,  here  and  there  we  find 
the  second  of  two  months  presented  as  the  wife  of  the  first,  and  a  sporkel 
followed  by  a  sporkelsin  and  an  ougest  by  an  ogstin.  Likewise  we  find 
among  the  Slavs  a  small  and  a  large  traven,  a  small  and  a  large  serpan, 
where  the  small  precedes  the  large  one,  whilst  our  small  horning  succeeds 
the  large  horn.  (The  Liineburg  Wenden  also  made  a  first  wintermonat, 
September,  precede  the  other,  which  was  December.)  According  to  Slavic 
order,  however,  the  small  cerwen  preceded  the  large  lerwenec.  Something 
similar  is  found  in  the  Celtic  midu  and  ?nichrundu  for  November  and 
December;  ephan,  summer,  and  gorephan,  main  summer,  for  June  and  July. 

^  K.  Fr.  Hermann,   Uber  Griechische  Monatskunde,  Gottingen,  1844,  p.  64. 

^  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  1848,  I.,   iios. 

"  I  put  in  round  brackets  what  seems  to  me  to  be  wrong  in  Grimm's  argument. 
When  the  meaning  of  the  common  heading  of  two  subsequent  months  was  forgotten,  and 
Roman  quarters  of  years  had  become  popular,  a  third  month  was  sometimes  added  under 
the  same  name,  a  usage  to  which  the  intercalary  month  may  have  led. 


THE  GERMANIC   YEAR  9 

Even  the  gipsies,  whose  month-names  are  given  by  Pott  (I.  116),  style 
June  and  July  by  the  cognate  names  nutibe  and  nunutibe;  and  in  Albanese 
yoo-Ti  and  yoo-To^teo-re  for  August  and  November  we  have  the  same  thing. 
This  coupling  is  in  my  eyes  a  testimony  of  great  age.  (The  Attic  calendar 
in  the  leap  year  added  another  IlocreiSewv  after  the  first,  as  the  Jews  did 
after  their  adar,  a  veadar  or  other  adar.)  The  Arabic  lunar  year  still 
shows  its  months  connected  in  six  regular  pairs :  rebi  el  avvel  and  rebi  el 
accher,  dscheviadi  el  avvel  and  dschemadi  el  accher,  dsulkade  and  dsulhedsche. 
The  Syriac  year  shows  a  theschrin  I.  and  II.  and  a  khamm  I.  and  II.; 
whilst  in  the  Persian  and  Jewish  calendar  this  coupling  has  been  lost.  But 
it  is  quite  apparent  in  the  division  of  the  Indian  year  into  six  parts,  each 
of  which  embraces  two  months,  most  of  which  have  cognate  names,  viz. : 
vasanta,  spring,  contains  the  months  madhu,  mead  or  honey,  and  mddhava, 
honey  sweet;  grischma,  summer,  contains  the  months  shukra,  the  light  one, 
and  s/iukhi,  the  shining  one ;  varscha,  the  raining  tide,  contains  the  months 
nabhas,  cloud  (Latin  nubes,  Slavic  nebo,  cloudy  sky),  and  nabhasja,  the 
cloudy  one;  sarad,  sultry  tide,  contains  the  months  ischa  and  iirg/ia,  the 
nourishing  one;  hemanta,  winter,  contains  the  months  sahas,  strength,  and 
sahasja,  the  strong  one ;  stsira,  dew  tide,  contains  the  months  iapas,  warmth, 
and  tapasja,  the  warm  one.  The  relation  of  the  names  taj>as  and  tapasja, 
nabhas  and  nabhasia,  sahas  and  sahasja,  Jtiadhu  and  mddhava  is  analogous 
to  sporkel  and  sporkelsin,  ongest  and  ougsiin ;  gosti  and  gostobieste,  cerwen 
and  cerwenec,  and  the  Sanskrit  names  given  here  seem  to  be  more  popular 
than  the  learned  ones,  which  were  fixed  for  the  aditjas;  and  through  the 
division  of  the  Indian  year  into  six  seasons,  the  division  of  the  Germanic 
year  into  three  seasons,  which  immediately  proceeds  from  it,  is  justified  in 
a  way  that  must  be  welcome  to  us."  Further  on  ^  he  says,  "A  connection 
between  our  month-names  and  the  six  Indian  seasons,  and  the  coupling 
always  of  two  subsequent  months,  which  proceeds  from  them,  must  be 
acknowledged.  "2 

^  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  p.   113. 

^  In  Mahabharata  the  six  Indian  seasons  vasanta,  grtsma,  varsa,  farad,  hemania,  and 
fi^ira  are  represented  as  six  men  who  play  at  golden  and  silver  dice  (O.  Schrader,  Die 
aelleste  Zeiiteilung  des  indogerntanischen   Volkes,  Berlin,   Habel,   1878,  p.  22). 


lo  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Grimm  indicates  in  a  general  way  the  facts  that  point  to  an  early  six- 
partition  of  the  Germanic  year.  But  since  his  day  so  much  material 
bearing  upon  the  point  has  accumulated,  that  it  is  necessary  to 
enumerate  the  most  important  items  of  it.  On  the  Nether-Rhine  the 
division  of  the  year  into  six  tides  or  periods  of  sixty  days  each  Avas  known 
till  so  late  as  the  fourteenth  century,  although  then  it  was  thought  to  be 
antiquated  as  compared  with  the  new  Romano-Christian  way  of  deter- 
mining seasons.  As  the  starting-point  people  then,  as  of  old,  took  one  of 
the  three  ends  of  the  seasons,  July  12,  counting  from  then  to  September 
17,  November  11,  January  13,  March  17,  and  May  12,  by  ancient  Ger- 
manic three-scoreday  tides  or  half  seasons.  Neither  eight  weeks  nor  nine 
weeks  exactly  covering  these  tides,  eight  weeks  and  nine  weeks  were 
alternately  taken.  On  November  n,  therefore,  winter  began,  on  March 
17  early  summer,  and  on  July  12  later  summer.^ 

It  is  rather  difficult  to  say  what  were  the  names  of  these  GermarRic 
three-score-day  tides,  although  in  German  legal  and  literary  documents  there 
occur  quite  numerous  denominations  which  clearly  cover  a  longer  time  than 
a  month,  and  yet  neither  amount  to  three  nor  to  four  months. 

Such  are,  e.g.,  in  der  brache,  in  der  zwibrache,  in  der  herbstsat^  in  der 
erne,  im  houwet,  im  hanffluchet^^  ze  afterhahne  und  houwe,'^  in  der  bonenar/ie.° 
Others  are  im  brdchet,  im  wimmot,  in  der  sat,  in  dem  sniie,  laubbrost,  and 
laubrtse,^  haberschnitt,  and  habererndte,  covering  August  and  September,  and 

^ "  Urbarium  of  the  Monastery  of  St.  Victor,  Xanten,"  in  the  State- Archive,  Diisseldorf, 
under  "Stift  Xanten,"  R,  No.  8=*,  leaf  8=^.  The  passage  was  communicated  to  me,  like  all 
the  unprinted  material  referring  to  the  Rhine-country  and  Tirol,  by  Dr.  Armin  Tille  of 
Bonn.  It  runs:  "Item  notandum,  quod  secundum  antiquum  modum  computandi 
servicium  potest  poni  per  certos  terminos  infra  dictos,  scilicet  a  festo  Margarete  (ubi 
annus  incipit)  usque  Lamberti  sunt  9  ebdomade,  item  a  Lamberti  usque  Martini  sunt 
octo  ebdomade,  item  a  Martini  usque  ad  festum  baculi,  quod  est  octava  epiphanie,  et 
sunt  9  ebdomade.  Item  a  festo  baculi  usque  Gertrudis  sunt  9  ebdomade,  item  a  festo 
Gertrudis  usque  ad  festum  Pancracii  sunt  8  ebdomade,  item  a  festo  Pancracii  usque 
Margarete  sunt  novem  ebdomade  et  faciunt  simul  unum  annum,  scilicet  52  ebdomadas." 

^ Grimm,  Deutsche  RechtsalterlUmer,  III.,  546. 

^Ibid.,  I.,  419.  '^Ibid.,  I.,  673,  679. 

'Neocorus,  II.,  75,  426;    Weinhold,  Deutsche  Jahrteilung,   1862,  p.    13. 

'Weinhold,  Die  deutschen  Monatnamen,  Halle,  1869,  p.  2. 


THE   GERMANIC  YEAR  It 

sometimes  even  including  the  time  from  July  25  to  August  i.^  To  these 
lenz  (lent,  A.S.  lengten)  and  herbst  (harvest)  in  their, medieval  senses  are  to 
be  added,  the  latter  being  on  German  ground  frequently  replaced  by  augst 
(August),  which,  however,  covers  a  longer  time  than  August,  so  that  July  25, 
St.  James's  day,  can  be  z2iS\tdi  Jacob  stag  im  augstP-  It  was  out  of  such  words 
that  the  Germanic  month-names  were  formed  in  the  second  half-millennium 
of  our  era,  after  the  Roman  calendar  had  become  popular  among  the 
Germanics.  So  Professor  Weinhold^  seems  to  be  of  opinion  that  in  der  erne 
is  older  than  the  month-name  erntmanot;  that  im  bracket  and  im  houwet  dite 
older  than  brdchmonat ;  and  that  hcumat  and  im  ivimmot  are  older  than 
windumemanot :  and  he  expressly  states  that,  according  to  his  belief,  in  der 
sat  and  in  dem  snite  have  given  origin  to  sdtmdn  and  schnitmonat,  and  that 
laubbrost  and  laubrtse  under  our  eyes  become,  by  being  taken  in  a  narrower 
sense,  something  like  month-names.*  Beside  these  words  English  expres- 
sions like  fall,  backend,  '•'•  hotil  d  winter'^  are  to  be  placed,  and  perhaps, 
also,  two  other  words  which  later  were  used  to  correspond  to  Latin  ver 
and  autumnus.  For  ver  the  Western  Germanics  took  a  root,  lang,  perhaps 
connected  with  long,  forming  out  of  it  a  term  for  the  time  when  the 
days  grow  longer  (Old-High-German  langiz,  lenzo,  lenzin ;  Middle-High- 
German  lenze;  Dutch  lente;  Anglo-Saxon  lengten,  lencten;  English  lent), 
which,  however,  cannot  be  traced  beyond  the  Western  Germanic,  not  to 
mention  the  common  Germanic.^  This  makes  it  rather  likely  that  it  was 
not  the  name  of  an  old  three-score-day  tide,  but  was  formed  new.  The 
term  adopted  to  correspond  to  autumnus  is  also  confined  to  Western  Ger- 
manic,   although   its   root   is    common    Aryan    property.      It    is    Old-High- 


^Grotefend,  Die  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,   1891,  I.,  79. 

'^Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  87. 

^ Die  deutschen  Monainainen,  Halle,   1869,  pp.   I,  2. 

^If  Neocorus,  II.,  315,  explains  in  howman  edder  in  der  howame  (Weinhold,  Ibid., 
p.  13),  it  follows  that  he  regarded  the  term  hmvarne  as  still  more  popular  than  the  newly 
formed  word  howman. 

^  Since  the  fifteenth  century  it  has  been  in  German  supplanted  by  the  term  Friihling 
(from  friih,  Gothic  frd,  *  early ;  Greek  Trput),  and  in  English  by  spring  (cp.  I  Sam.  ix.  26, 
"about  the  spring  of  the  day";  Shakespeare,  2  Henry  IV.  iv.  4.  35,  "since  the  middle 
summer's  spring"). 


li  VULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

German  herbist,  Middle-High-German  herbest,  Dutch  herfst,  Anglo-Saxon 
hcerfest,  English  harvest,  and  belongs  to  Latin  carpei'e,  to  pluck,  and 
Greek  Kapiro^,  fruit.  ^ 

Yet  more  important  than  these  rather  vague  terms  are  several  others 
which  can  be  proved  to  have  exactly  covered  a  Germanic  tide  of  three- 
score days.  They  are  the  more  striking  since,  in  two  cases,  it  is  simply 
Roman  month-names  which  are  used  for  denoting  a  tide  of  two  months, 
so  that  two  subsequent  Roman  months  among  the  Germanics  are  fre- 
quently called  by  the  same  name,  the  first  being  called  the  former,  and 
the  second  the  latter  month  of  that  designation ;  whilst  some  Germanic 
names  of  the  same  kind  are  of  very  great  age. 

The  Scandinavian  summer  of  six  months  is  divided  into  three  tides 
called  Vaarmoaner,  Sumarmoaner,  and  Haustmoaner  j^  herbst  as  denoting 
the  two  months  September  and  October  is  very  common  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  so  that  the  former  month  is  called  der  erste  herbst,  and  the  latter  der 
andere  herbst? 

In  a  Gothic  calendariiim  of  the  sixth  century*  November,  or  Naubaimbair, 


■*  Scandinavian  haust  or  host  is  probably  to  be  derived  from  August,  which  in  the 
Middle  Ages  appeared  as  aust.  In  English  the  Germanic  word  hai-vest  in  the  later  sense 
of  a  season  was  completely  superseded  by  Romance  autumn. 

'^Weinhold,  Altnordisches  Leben,  Berlin,   1856,  pp.  371-383. 

"*  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,  I.,  84;  Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monat- 
namen,  pp.  15,  42.  There  appears  even  a  dritt  herbst  for  November.  The  naming  of 
three  subsequent  months  as  first,  second,  and  third  augst  or  hej-bst  admits  of  several  explana- 
tions. The  Roman  quarter  of  a  year  having  taken  the  place  of  the  old  third,  it  was  but 
natural  that  all  the  three  months  forming  it  should  have  received  a  common  name  ;  there 
is  no  doubt  that  in  this  way  herbst,  which  simply  meant  harvest,  advanced  to  the  meaning 
of  the  season  of  autumn.  This  is  the  more  likely,  since  the  tripling  of  the  month-name 
is  found  just  in  that  season,  which,  according  to  Tacitus,  among  the  Germanics  had  no 
name.  Beda  also  has  such  a  tripling  in  the  case  of  the  Lida  month,  though  for  another 
purpose,  viz.,  for  forming  an  intercalary  month  for  the  leap  year.  His  June,  July,  and 
third  Lida  covering  to  a  large  extent  the  same  ground  as  the  July,  August,  and  Septem- 
ber, called  the  three  herbste  or  augste,  it  may  seem  probable  that  the  leap  year  had  also 
to  do  with  the  origination  of  the  series  of  three  months  bearing  the  same  name.  That 
it  was  August  which  was  doubled  may  be  inferred  from  Northic  tvtmdnadhr,  double-month, 
which  is  the  name  for  August,  and  has  not  been  understood  by  Professor  Weinhold. 

*Moritz  Heyne,   Ulfilas,  Paderborn  und  MUnster,   1885,  p,  226. 


THE  GERMANIC  YEAR 


13 


is  called  fruma  Jiuleis,  which  presupposes  that  December  was  called  *aftuma 
liuleis ;  in  Beda's  list  of  Germanic  month-names  ^  it  is  stated  that  the 
Anglo-Saxons  called  December  and  January  together  Gtu/i,  for  which,  later, 
the  terms  cerra  Geola  and  ceftera  Geola  were  used ;  in  the  same  place  Beda 
states  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  called  June  and  July  oerra  Lida  and  ceftera 
Lida  respectively;  in  Middle  Germany  up  to  this  day  January  is  called 
der  grosse  Horn,  February  der  kleine  Horn.  Both  names  together  occur  in 
Christian  Wolf's  Mathematical  Dictionary,  Leipzig,  1742,  which  borrowed 
all  kinds  of  things  from  the  dialects  spoken  in  Saxony ;  but  Hornung 
{i.e.,  small  Horn  or  son  of  Horn)  is  found  among  the  list  ot  German 
month-names  composed  by  Charlemagne,  and  brought  down  to  us  by  his 
biographer  Eginhart.^  It  being  the  only  name  in  the  list  which  is  not  a 
compound  of  mdnoth,  it  is  bound  to  be  of  ancient  German  origin.  The 
forms  occurring  elsewhere  are  Hornung,  Horning,  homer  and  horn.^ 

As  a  rule,  der  erst  herbst  is  September,*  and  der  under  herbst 
October.^  But  November  also  appears  as  der  under  herbst,^  though  more 
frequently  as  der  drit  herbst^  September  also  being  called  Uberherbst.^ 
It  shows  a  state  of  things  a  little  further  advanced  when,  as  is  frequently 
the  case,  der  erste  and  der  undere  herbst  are  replaced  by  der  erste  and  der 
andere  herbstmonat  f   likewise  there  are  numerous  examples  for  November 

^  De  Tempormn  Ratione,  chap.  xv.  ^  Vita  Caroli  Magni,  chap.  xxix. 

^Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Miltelalters  und  der  Neuzeit,  1891,  I.,  86.  I 
should  be  incHned  to  see  in  Horn  the  name  of  an  old  German  three-score-day  tide,  just 
as  in  Yule  and  Lida.     Compare  on  Horn,  however,  Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnanien,  p.  45. 

*  Diefenbach,  iVovujti  Glossariwn,  32;  Codex  Germanicus  Monacensis,  93,  398,  700,  730; 
Grazer  Kalender ;  "  der  erst  heribst,"  Codex  Germanicus  Monacensis,  349. 

^  Klingenberger  Kronik,  343;  Diefenbach,  Novum  Glossaritim,  32;  Codex  Germ.  Monac, 
93>  398,  480,  700,  730,  771  ;  Grazer  Kalender;  Huber,  "der  ander  herbst,"  Giess.  MS., 
978  ;  Weinhold,  Die  deutschen  A/o}iatnat?ien,  pp.  41,  42. 

"  Codex  Germ.  Monac,  32. 

^Diefenbach,  Novum  Glossariwn,  32;  Codex  Germ.   Monac,  349,  730. 

^  Tegernseer  Kalender  ;  Weinhold,  Ibid. ,  p.  42. 

*  Grimm,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  I.,  p.  85;  Zellweger,  No.  191,  a.  1407; 
Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,  p.  15,  note,  and  pp.  42,  43,  where  a  long  list  of  cases  is 
given.  November  is  sometimes  called  der  dritt  herbistmanot  {Ibid.,  p.  43),  and  December 
der  vierd  herbistmonad  ox  letst  herbistmotieth  (Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  84),  a  fact  which 
leads  us  beyond  Roman  quarters  of  years  into  Germanic  thirds  of  years.     Unserfrauen 


14 


YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 


being  called  der  erst  winter,  and  December  being  called  der  ander  winter 
(and  even  January  being  named  manot  des  hindrosten  winters)  ;^  so  November 
is  also  called  der  erst  winter nianeid,^  and  December  d&r  ander  winter nianeid^ 
or  der  lest  wintermond.'^  On  Bavarian  ground,  a  Tegernsee  calendar^  calls 
March  and  April  das  erst  ackermonat  and  das  ander  ackermonat  ;^  to  these 
cases  two  others  are  to  be  added,  in  which  Roman  month-names  are  used 
for  the  same  purposes.  There  is  quite  an  abundance  of  instances  in  which 
May  is  called  der  erst  may,  and  June  der  ander  may  •,'^  the  same  holds  good 
for  der  erst  augst,  meaning  August,  and  der  ander  augst,  meaning  September, 
so  that  even  the  term  occurs :   in  den  tzweyen  augsten.^     In  the  Diocese 

dulttag  in  dem  efsten  herbsltnanode,  Sept.  8,  A.D.  1 290,  Pilgram ;  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung, 
I.,  68. 

^  See  Weinhold,  Detitsche  Monatnaftien,  p.  61.  "^  Ibid.,  p.  62.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  62. 

*  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  208,  where  also  an  instance  is  given  of  February  being 
called  der  letzte  wintermonat ,  a.d.  1536,  Ulm,  which  again  points  to  four  winter  months 
or  Germanic  thirds  of  years. 

*  Pfeiffer,   Germania,  IX, ,   192  f  ;    Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,   14. 
^Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,   i. 

''Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,  pp.  13,  50,  where  a  whole  group  of  old  Bavarian 
almanacs  is  mentioned  which  has  this  peculiarity  ;  Grimm,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache, 
1848,  I.,  84,  according  to  a  Cassel  manuscript  of  A.D.  1445.  About  some  Alemannic 
and  Swabian  almanacs,  comp.  Weinhold,  Ibid.,  p.   15. 

^  Muglen  bei  Kovachich,  p.  4  ;  Grimm,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  1848,  I.,  p.  85. 
In  some  Bavarian  almanacs  August  and  September  are  called  der  erste  and  der  andere 
augst  (Diefenbach,  Novum  Glossarium  Latino-germanicutn,  Francofurti,  1857,  34,  and 
Tegernseer  Fischbuchlein) ;  so  it  is  on  Alemannic  and  Swabian  ground  (Weinhold,  Deutsche 
Monatnamen,  p.  15  ;  Codex  Germanicus  Monacensis,  32  ;  Diefenbach,  Novum  Glossarium, 
34  ;  Mone,  Anzeiger,  VIII.,  496)  ;  der  ander  ougst  is  September  (Grimm,  Geschichte  der 
deutschen  Sprache,  p.  85).  Among  the  German  communities  of  Valsugan  and  on  the 
hills  between  Brenta  and  Drau,  August  is  called  erster  Aux,  and  September  dnderts 
Aux,  a  form  in  which  it  also  appears  in  some  Roman  documents  of  Rhaetia  (Hormayr, 
Geschichte  der  gefiirsteten  Grafschaft  Tirol,  Tubingen,  1806,  Part  I.,  Section  i,  p.  I41). 
Der  erste  august  means  August  in  Tegernseer  Fischbuch  ;  der  erst  awgst,  Giessen  MS. ,  978  ; 
der  erst  awst,  Codex  Germanicus  Monacensis,  32  ;  whilst  der  ander  augst  may  be  August 
(Codex  Germanicus  Monacensis,  93,  398,  7CX3,  848,  3384;  Giessen  MS.  978;  Gmund's 
Kalender;  Grazer  Kalender;  Ruber's  /Calender;  der  andere  auste,  Diefenbach,  Novum 
Glossarium,  4),  or  September  (Megenberg,  Diefenbach,  Novum  Glossarium,  34  ;  Tegernseer 
Fischbuch  {der  ander  august)).  In  the  xiii.  comuni  there  are  even  three  Agester, 
meaning  August,  September,  October  (Cimbr.  Worterbuch,  107;  Weinhold,  Die  deutschen 
Monatnamen,  p.  32). 


THE   GERMANIC  YEAR 


15 


of  Constanz  August  is  called  ougst,  and  September  Haberougst}  or  August 
is  called  erster  aux,  and  September  under  aux,'^  or  August  is  called  augest, 
and  September  Augstin,  oegsten,  auwestin,  i.e.,  the  small  augest.^  Sometimes 
July  is  called  der  erste  augst,  and  August  der  under  uugst.^  Though  Augstine 
and  Aygsien  appear  a  few  times  as  meaning  August,^  on  the  whole  Ougstine, 
i.e.,  small  August,  means  September  f  nay,  there  even  appears  for  September 
the  compound  Herbistouwistinne'^  and  the  word  Huberougst.^  So  Konrad 
von  Dankrotsheim  in  his  Numenbuch  ^  names  August  and  September  ougst 
and  oegstin.  On  the  other  hand,  augstmdnd,  uuistmuent,  uustmuent,  owest- 
mun  mean  August  exclusively.^*' 

There  is  nothing  whatever  in  the  Roman  calendar  which  can  be  said 
to  have  been  suggestive  of  that  strange  custom,  so  that  we  have  good 
reason  for  claiming  it  as  a  relic  of  a  pre-Roman  Germanic  usage.  If  it 
was  able  to  influence  the  Roman  calendar  so  far  as  to  force  upon  it  the 
three-score-day  tide,  it  must  needs  have  been  most  deeply  rooted  and 
firmly  estabHshed  among  the  Germanic  tribes  in  East  and  West,  North  and 
South.  Not  only  is  the  six-fold  division  of  the  Germanic  year  a  most  important 
fact  in  itself,  but  it  also  furnishes  us  with  the  means  of  reconciling  the 
seeming  contradiction,  according  to  which  the  Germanics  at  the  same  time 
had  a  dual  division  and  a  tri-partition  of  the  year.      The   units  of  which 


^  Ehinger  Spitalbtuh,  Germanic  Museum,  Niirnberg,  No.  7008. 

^  Sette  communi ;  Schtneller-Frommann,  Bayrisches  Wdrterbuch,  54  ;  Grotefend, 
Zeitrechnung,  I.,   14. 

^  Schmeller-Frommann,  Bayrisches  Worterbtich,  54  (1453,  Baselland)  ;  Grotefend, 
Zeitrechnung,  I.,   14.     Grimm  explained  the  term  wrongly  as  the  wife  of  August. 

*  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,   14.  ^  Codex  Germanicus  Monacensis,  771. 

^  Codex  Germanicus  Monacetisis,  558  (Schmeller,  I^,  54),  Ougstin,  Dankrotsheim ; 
Augstin,  Dasypodius  488d  (1537);  Ougsten,  Diefenbach,  Novum  Glossarium,  40;  Oegstin, 
Dankrotsheim;  Ouwestin,  Kbditz,  Leben  des  heiligen  Ludwig,  Leipzig,  1851,  40,  61  ; 
Owestin,  Hermann  von  Fritslar  (Myst.  I.,  195)  ;  Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,  p.  32  ; 
Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,   14, 

^  Koditz,  Leben  des  heiligen  Ludwig,  Leipzig,   187 1,  66. 

**  Ehinger  Spitalbuch  ;    Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,  p.  39. 

*  Weinhold,  Ibid.,  p.  16;  Strobel,  Beitrdge  zur  deutschen  Literattir  und  Literatur- 
geschichte,  Paris,  Strassburg,   1827,  p.   109  ss. 

^"Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  Mittelalters,  Hannover,   1891,  L,   14. 


1 6  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS' 

their  year  consisted  were  sixths,  and  it  is  apparent  that  of  these  tides 
either  two  could  each  time  be  grouped  together  to  form  thirds,  or  thrSe 
could  be  grouped  together  each  time  to  form  halves.  At  the  same  time 
the  simple  fact  of  sixths  being  the  units  constituent  of  the  Germanic  year 
excludes  any  quartering  of  the  year,  since  a  quarter  would  consist  of  one- 
sixth  and  a  half,  and  would  thus  most  seriously  interfere  with  the  unity  of 
the  three-score-day  tide.  If  Professor  Weinhold^  says  the  dual  division  of 
the  Germanic  year  was  dislodged  by  a  tri-partition,  he  is  entirely  in  error; 
for  so  little  can  be  said  of  a  dislodgment  of  one  mode  by  the  other  that 
for  a  long  prehistoric  period  both  existed  peacefully  alongside  each  other, 
and  appear  thus  at  the  dawn  of  history.  The  Oriental  tri-partition  of  the 
year  would  probably  not  have  so  deeply  rooted  itself  in  the  Germanic  mind 
had  it  not  been  supported  by  the  economic  and  climatic  conditions  of  the 
country  they  emigrated  to.  There  the  most  decided  season,  the  winter, 
fills,  on  an  average,  a  period  of  exactly  four  months,  which  naturally  leads 
to  a  division  of  the  rest  of  the  year  into  two  equal  parts  of  four  months 
each.  And  the  economic  year  was  no  less  naturally  divided  into  three 
parts — the  rest  of  the  plough,  the  cultivation  and  reaping  of  the  grass,  and 
the  harvest.^  There  is  no  reason  to  take  refuge  in  speculations  about 
symbols  and  the  religious  opinions  of  the  early  Germanics  to  explain  their 
division  of  the  year.  Economic  conditions  have  at  all  times  weighed  much 
heavier  than  fancies.  The  centre  of  animal  activity,  as  well  as  of  the 
strivings,  hopes,  and  dreams  of  men,  was  in  pre-Roman  Germanic  times, 
as  it  is  now,  to  win  food  and  to  get  on  in  life — in  early  times  by  hunting 
and  keeping  cattle,  later  on  by  cultivation  of  meadows,  and  finally  by  agri- 
culture in  addition.  Then  as  now  the  endless  generation  of  human  beings 
and  the  endless  competition  for  the  means  of  subsistence  among  them, 
which  two  factors  have  at  all  times  determined  the  fates  of  families,  tribes, 
nations,  and  races,  pressed  upon  individuals,  and  compelled  them  to  work 
by  leaving  them,  if  unwilling  to  do  so,  the  alternative  of  perishing. 

^  Deutsche  Jahrteilung,  1862,  p.  7. 
^Weinhold,  Deutsche  [ahrteihmg,   1862,  p.  7. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE  ANGLO-GERMAN  YEAR. 

Both  Caesar  and  Tacitus  tell  us  that  the  Germans  did  not  count  by 
days  as  the  Romans  did,  but  by  nights,  reckoning  the  vigilia  or  eve  as 
part  of  the  following  day.^  This  habit  lived  on  unbroken  through  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  is  still  living  among  us,  so  that  we  count  by  fortnights 
instead  of  by  fourteen  days,  and  speak  of  the  Twelve-nights  of  Christ- 
mas-time. It  was  taken  over  by  the  early  Church,  as  we  know  by  so 
good  an  authority  as  the  Venerable  Beda,  as  regards  festivals  at  least.^  In 
the  same  way  the  Germanics  reckoned  by  winters  instead  of  by  summers, 
counting  the  winter  and  the  summer  which  followed  it  as-  one  year,  a 
custom  which,  however,  is  not  exclusively  Germanic.^    The  Saxon  Chronicle 

^  Caesar,  Belluvi  Gallicum,  Book  VI.,  chap,  xviii.  :  "  Spatia  omnis  temporis  non  numero 
dierum,  sed  noctium  finiunt ;  dies  natales  et  mensium  et  annorum  initia  observant,  ut 
noctem  dies  subsequatur. "  Tacitus,  Germania,  chap.  xi.  :  "  Coeunt  nisi  quid  fortuitum 
et  subitum  incidit,  certis  diebus,  cum  aut  inchoatur  luna  aut  impletur ;  nam  agendis 
rebus  hoc  auspicatissimum  initium  credunt.  Nee  dierum  numerum,  ut  nos,  sed  noctium 
computant ;  sic  constituunt,  sic  condicunt ;  nox  ducere  diem  videtur. "  Later  instances  are 
given  from  law  literature  by  Weinhold,  Deutsche  Jahrieilung,  notes  2,  3,  II,  12,  and 
13;  from  documents  by  Grotefend,  Zeilrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelaliers,  Hannover,  1 89 1, 
I.,  p.   131,  and  1898,  II.,  202,  under  Nacht. 

^  De  Temporum  Ratione,  chap,  v.:  "  Merito  autem  quaeritur,  quare  populus  Israel, 
qui  diei  ordinem  iuxta  Moysi  traditionem  a  mane  semper  usque  ad  mane  servabat,  festa 
tamen  omnia  sua,  sicut  et  nos  hodie  facimus,  vespere  incipiens,  vespere  consummarit 
dicente  legislatore :    A  vespera  usque  ad  vesperam  celebrabitis  sabbata  vestra." 

^Manilius,  Astronotnicon,  "per  quinquaginta  brumas";  and  Martialis,  "ante  brumas 
triginta."  On  the  parallels  between  night  and  winter  and  between  day  and  summer,  see  O. 
Schx&dex,  Die aelteste Zeitteilungdes  indogermaniscken  Volkes,'Be:x\m,  Habel,  1878,  pp.  12,  44SS. 

B 


l8  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

abounds  with  examples  of  that  usage.^  Though  it  is  generally  the  term 
winter  which  is  used  thus,  it  is  by  no  means  exclusively  so,  other  terms, 
like  louprise  in  the  Alemannic  dialects,  being  employed  in  the  same  sense.^ 
Thus  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Germanic  year  began  with  the  begin- 
ning of  winter,  and  not  in  the  middle  of  it,  as  did  the  Roman  year  with 
its  dogmatic  and  unpractical  way  of  dividing  time.  But  when  exactly  was 
the  Germanic  New  Year?  On  an  average,  in  Germany  actual  winter  sets 
in  about  the  middle  of  November,  when  it  ceases  to  be  possible  to  leave 
cattle,  swine,  sheep,  and  horses  on  the  pasture  grounds  to  seek  their  own 
food ;  when  it  begins  to  freeze ;  and  when  snowfalls  become  very  frequent. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  for  purely  nomadic  cattle-keeping  tribes,  such  as  at 
the  dawn  of  history  the  Germanics  certainly  were,  this  is  the  term  which 
compels  them  to  change  all  their  summer  habits,  and  therefore  marks  the 
beginning  of  a  new  season  in  the  most  incisive  way.  It  may,  therefore, 
be  regarded  as  certain  that  the  Germanic  winter  did  not  begin  later  than 
at  mid-November.  But  in  order  to  determine  whether  it  did  not,  perhaps, 
begin  earlier,  we  need  other  means  than  mere  economic  speculation.  We 
saw  above  that  the  Germanics  in  prehistoric  times  took  over  the  Oriental 
year,  which  was  divided  into  six  three-score-day  tides.  Now  the  oldest  such 
tide  we  know  of  among  Germanics  was  the  liuleis  tide  among  the  Goths 
of  the  sixth  century.^  It  exactly  covered  the  Roman  months,  November 
and  December,  November  being  called  fruma  liuleis.  It  is  more  than 
unlikely  that  the  beginning  of  the   year   should  have  interfered  with  any 


^The  Parker  MS.  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  (ed.  by  Earle  in  "  Two  of  the  Saxon 
Chronicles  Parallel"  Oxford,  1865,  p.  2)  begins:  "thy  geare  the  wses  agan  fram  Cristes 
acennesse  cccc.  wintra  and  xciiii.  uuintra,"  and  in  the  second  paragraph  gear  and  winter 
are  used  as  synonyms  ("and  he  hsefde  thset  rice  xvi.  gear  .  .  .  and  heold  xvii.  winter  .  .  . 
heold  vii.  gear  .  .  .  ricsode  xvii.  gear  .  .  .  riscode  xxxi.  wintra  .  .  .  heold  xxxi.  wintra," 
Ibid.,  p.  2).  The  oldest  part  of  the  version  belongs  to  the  second  half  of  the  ninth 
century  (R.  Wlilker,  Grundriss  zur  Geschichte  der  angelsdchsischen  Literatur,  Leipzig, 
1885,  §  509). 

^Weinhold,  Deutsche  Jahrteilung,  pp.  12  and  19;  just  as  the  Bavarians  counted  after 
autumns  {Lex  Baiuvariorurn,  VIII.,   19,  4;    Weinhold,  Ibid.). 

^The  periods  of  three  scores  of  days  I  call  tides,  the  unities  of  two  tides  I  call 
Germanic  seasons,  and  the  unities  of  three  tides  I  call  half-years. 


THE   BEGINNING   OF  THE   ANGLO-GERMAN   YEAR 


19 


such  three-score-day  tide ;  therefore  the  conclusion  will  be  allowed  that  it 
rather  began  with  the  beginning  of  one.  Thus  we  should  have  to  assume 
either  November  i  or  September  i  to  have  been  the  beginning  of  the 
Germanic  year.  But  September  bearing  in  Germany  entirely  the  character 
of  a  summer  month, — nay,  towards  the  end  of  August,  the  heat  frequently 
being  the  greatest  in  the  whole  course  of  the  year, — the  beginning  of 
the  Germanic  year  at  the  beginning  of  September  is  practically  out  of 
the  question,  so  that  only  November  i  remains  as  a  possible  beginning. 
Among  the  Goths  of  the  sixth  century  fruma  liuleis  and  November  were 
apparently  absolutely  identical,  as  appears  from  St.  Andrew's  day — which 
is  marked  down  in  that  calendar  as  Frtima  lUdeis  31 — and  from  some 
other  saints'  days.  All  we  are  allowed  to  conclude  from  the  fact,  how- 
ever, is  that  the  Goths  of  the  sixth  century  had  taken  over  the  Roman 
calendar,  naming  the  Roman  months  by  the  home-made  names  of  those 
Germanic  tides  which  approximately  covered  them.  It  by  no  means  follows 
from  this  fact  that  each  of  the  Germanic  pre-Roman  three-score-day  tides 
exactly  covered  two  Roman  months.  It  would  be  an  astounding  incident 
indeed  if  that  had  been  the  case,  and  only  an  extremely  rare  chance  could 
account  for  it.  Knowing  that  the  Indian  months  began  shortly  after  the 
middle  of  the  Roman  months,^  we  have  every  reason  to  assume  something 
similar  for  the  Germanic  three-score-day  tides.  This  assumption  is  sup- 
ported by  a  great  number  of  singular  facts.  Had  each  of  the  six  ancient 
Germanic  tides  not  exactly,  but  fairly  covered  two  subsequent  Roman 
months,  we  should  have  to  expect  that  the  same  would  be  the  case  with 
the  German  month-names  which  sprung  up  for  the  denomination  of  the 
Roman  months.  But  the  contrary  is  the  case.  To  quote  a  witness  be- 
yond suspicion,  I  cite  Professor  Weinhold,^  who  says  :  "  We  find  a  wavering 
of  the  names  between  several  months  :  ackermonat  wavers  between  March 
and  April ;  hartmonat  between  November,  December,  and  January ;  lasemdnt 
means  December  and  January ;  hornung  means  January  and  February ; 
hundeman  is  found  to  be  applied  to  June,  July,  and  August  j  rosenmant  to 


^  Grimm,   Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,   1848,  I.,  p.  75. 
"^  Die  deutschen  Monainamen,  Halle,  1869,  p.  2. 


20  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

June  and  July;  scttmant  to  September  and  October;  slachtmcin  to  October, 
November,  and  December ;  and  sommermonat  to  June  and  July  :  the  names 
containing  the  constituent  vol  (ful)  occur  for  September,  November,  Decem- 
ber, January,  and  February,  and  wolfmonat  appears  denoting  November, 
December,  and  January" — a  list  which  could  easily  be  increased.  It  is  now 
generally  admitted  that  the  Germanic  month-names  are  a  very  late  product,  and 
that  they  were  merely  formed  for  the  purpose  of  replacing  the  Latin  names. 
If,  then,  the  ancient  Germanic  three-score-day  tides  extended  from  about  the 
middle  of  one  Roman  month  to  the  middle  of  the  second  next,  it  was 
bound  to  happen  that,  at  the  time  when  the  Roman  month-names  were 
taken  over,  they  were  applied  to  the  interval  between  the  middles  of  two 
consecutive  Roman  months,  which  means  neither  more  nor  less  than  that 
each  month-name  could  be  used  for  two  months  ;  so  during  the  period 
of  transition  it  could  scarcely  be  avoided  that  e.g.  the  term  November  was 
at  some  places  used  for  the  time  from  October  15  to  November  15;  whilst  on 
others  it  was,  with  equal  right,  made  to  cover  the  time  from  November  15  to 
December  1 5.  When,  later,  the  Latin  name  was  replaced  by  a  German  word, 
the  characteristic  held  good.  In  consequence  it  could  not  fail  to  happen, 
even  in  neighbouring  places,  that,  of  two  consecutive  Roman  months,  some- 
times the  first  and  sometimes  the  second  was  called  by  the  one  Latin  name. 
Finding,  as  we  do,  that  the  Goths  called  liuleis  the  time  from  November  i  to 
December  31,  and  the  Anglo-Saxons  called  Geola  the  time  from  December  i 
to  January  31,  we  can  scarcely  help  assuming  that  liuleis  originally  covered  a 
period  from  about  November  15  to  January  15,  and  that,  at  the  taking  over 
of  the  Roman  calendar,  among  the  Goths  that  name  was  shifted  a  fortnight 
back,  and  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  a  fortnight  forward,  so  as  to  create  an 
incongruence  of  a  whole  Roman  month.  This  argument  must  needs  lead  us 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  Germanic  liuleis  tide  extended  originally  from 
about  mid-November  to  mid-January ;  for  had  it  extended  from  mid-October 
to  mid-December,  we  should  have  to  expect  a  wavering  of  the  Yule  tide 
between  October-November  and  November-December,  and  not  between 
November-December  and  December-January.  All  this  points  to  the  con- 
clusion that  a  Germanic  three-score-day  tide  began  originally  about  the 
middle  of  November,  and  that  the  beginning  of  it  was  at  the  same  time 


THE   BEGINNING   OF   THE   ANGLO-GERMAN    YEAR  21 

the  beginning  of  the  Germanic  year.  This  result  is  supported  by  the  Rhenish 
Urbary  of  the  fourteenth  century  from  the  Monastery  of  St.  Victor,  Xanten.^ 
in  which  the  terms  of  the  six  three-score-day  tides  are  July  12,  Sept.  17, 
Nov.  II,  Jan.  13,  March  17,  and  May  12,  Martinmas  being  marked  out  as  a 
term  as  close  to  the  middle  of  November  as  possibly  can  be  expected. 

The  idea  of  the  Germanic  year  beginning  about  Martinmas  is  not  new. 
Fin  Magnusen^  remarked,  about  a  century  ago,  that  the  Germanics  began 
their  year  about  the  Advent  tide,  which  for  a  long  time  began  with  the 
Sunday  after  Martinmas.  Even  Weinhold  admits  that  Martinmas  coincides 
with  the  actual  beginning  ol  winter,^  in  which  character  it  is  clearly 
marked  by  the  popular  rimes : 

"Sanct  Martin 

Feuer  im  Kamin  "  * 
and 

"  Sanct  Marten  Miss 

Is  der  Winter  wiss";^ 

whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  he  maintains  that  the  Germans  began  their  year 
about  the  same  time  as  the  Romans  began  a  new  quarter  of  the  year,  i.e., 
on  September  29,  St.  Michael's  Day.  It  is  true  he  does  not  even  attempt 
to  prove  that  assertion  historically,  but  with  a  few  vague  remarks,  which 
can  scarcely  be  taken  seriously,  jumps  over  the  whole  point  which  ought 
to  have  been  the  centre  of  his  investigation.  It  never  occurs  to  him  that 
the  Goths  regarded  November  and  December  as  their  liuleis  tide,  and  that, 
if  their  year  was  not  begun  at  the  ist  of  November,  it  was  bound  to 
commence  on  the  beginning  of  September,  when  another  three-score-day 
tide  took  its  inception.  Only  a  man  who  has  never  in  his  life  left  his 
study    for    fresh    air    can    maintain    that    winter   began    at    the    close    of 

^  Staatsarchiv,  Diisseldorf,  under  "  Stift  Xanten,"  R,  No.  8*\  leaf  8^. 

^Specimen  Caletidarii  gentilis,  p.  1018,  according  to  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische 
Erniefeste,  p.  512 :  "  Suspicor  vulgarem  inter  veteres  Germanos  anni  adventum  posterius 
inter  christianos  certo  modo  mutatum  fuisse  in  adventum  domini  sive  initium  anni  ecclesi- 
astic!." 

^  Uber  die  deutsche  Jahrteilung,  Kiel,  1862,  p.  5. 

^Graesse,  Des  deutschen  Lattdmanns  Practica,  Dresden,   1858,  p.   178. 

'^Ibid.y  p.   178. 


2a  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

September  !  i  Did  Professor  Weinhold  realize  that  spring  began  then  at 
the  end  of  January,  when  Germany  as  a  rule  is  ice-bound  for  another 
month  and  a  half — two  to  three  months  before  cattle  are  able  to  pasture 
on  the  meadows?  He  had  not  even  the  courage  to  follow  out  the  conse- 
quences ;  but  makes  spring  begin  "  in  March,"  and  summer  at  the  summer 
solstice !  To  do  him  no  injustice  in  any  respect,  I  shall  assume  that  the 
phrase  "  in  March "  (which  implies  thirty-one  days  to  select  from)  is  meant 
to  mean  the  middle  of  March,  Then  we  have  a  winter  extending  from  the 
end  of  September  to  the  middle  of  March;  a  spring  extending  from  the 
middle  of  March  to  June  24;  and  a  summer  extending  from  June  24  to 
the  end  of  September  (which  seems  to  mean  September  29),  i.e.,  a  winter 
of  more  than  five  months  and  a  half!  a  spring  of  three  months  and  nine 
days  !  and  a  summer  of  three  months  and  five  days ! — a  calculation  which 
certainly  does  all  honour  to  the  arithmetical  attainments  of  our  Germanic 
ancestors  and  their  distinct  sense  of  the  equality  of  three  thirds  !  Would 
one  take  the  phrase  "in  March"  as  "in  the  end  of  March,"  the  time 
when  storks  and  swallows  return  in  flocks  and  the  grass  begins  to  grow 
green  again,  we  should  have  a  winter  of  full  six  months,  a  spring  of  not 
quite  three  months,  and  a  summer  of  a  little  more  than  three  months. 

But  perhaps  one  must  not  draw  the  consequences  from  these  ill-considered 
assumptions.  The  truth  is,  that  a  beginning  of  the  Germanic  winter  about 
the  end  of  September  is  absolutely  untenable,  that  it  really  took  place 
about  the  middle  of  November,  while  the  end  of  September  did  not 
become  of  importance  as  a  dividing-point  of  the  year  until  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Roman  quartering  of  the  year,  under  the  reign  of  which  a  new 
quarter  began  on  October  i,  and  was  fixed  by  the  Church  on  September  29, 
i.e.,  on  Michaelmas. 

Having,  at  last,  arrived  at  the  starting-point,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
cast  a  glance  over  the  whole  of  the  Germanic  year,  and  to  draw  once  and 
for  all  the  theoretical  conclusions  from  that  result.  Counting  by  original 
Germanic  half-years,  summers  and  winters,  we  have  to  fix  the  other 
junction-point  of  the   two  at  mid-May,  a  term  dear  to  all   who   have  the 

^Graesse,  Des  deutschen  Landmanns  Practica,  Dresden,   1858,  p.  718. 


THE    BEGINNING  OF  THE  ANGLO-GERMAN  YEAR  23 

happiness  of  receiving  house  rents  in  Scotland.  Counting  with  Oriental- 
made  thirds  of  years,  or  Germanic  seasons,  we  have  to  close  the  winter 
and  begin  the  early  summer  at  mid-March,  and  to  close  the  early  summer 
and  begin  the  late  summer  at  mid-July.  If  this  really  be  the  old  Germanic 
division  of  the  year,  it  is  bound  to  be  preserved  in  all  kinds  of  recollections 
and  institutions :  above  all,  in  legal  institutions,  in  popular  tradition,  in  folk- 
belief  and  rustic  custom,  in  festivals  and  bonfires,  and,  last  but  not  least,  in 
ecclesiastical  habits  which,  as  far  as  they  were  created  after  the  fifth  century 
of  our  era,  reflect  an  enormous  amount  of  Germanic  tradition  and  thought. 


CHAPTER   III. 


THE   FEAST   OF   MARTINMAS. 


The  term  at  which  Roman  legions  in  Gaul  and  Germany  withdrew  into 
winter  quarters  varied  a  little,  although  not  considerably.  As  a  rule  it 
seems  to  have  been  before  the  middle  of  October,  when  the  rainy  season 
begins  in  those  countries.  It  was  the  frequent  rain  which  prevented  any 
continuation  of  warfare,  not  the  cold.  No  Roman  general  seems  to  have 
been  bold  enough  to  try  to  extend  warlike  operations  till  frost  set  in. 
When  Caesar,  for  once,  tried  to  keep  his  legions  engaged  in  war  beyond 
the  usual  term,  he  was  compelled  to  retreat,  as  his  soldiers  could  no 
longer  sleep  in  the  open  field  because  of  the  rain.^  On  the  other  hand, 
he  did  not  like  to  retire  into  winter  quarters  too  early;  and  when  he  had 
to  do  so,  because  no  more  work  was  to  be  done,  he  expressly  mentioned 
it.2  Now,  A.D.  14,  Germanicus  was  fighting  some  German  tribes.  The 
autumn  came,  and  he  withdrew  into  winter  quarters.  The  winter  was 
imminent,  but  had  not  yet  set  in.^  The  fifth  and  twenty-first  legions  were 
in   winter   quarters   at   the   sixtieth   stone,  which   place  was  called    Castra 

^Caesar,  Bellum  Gallicum,  Lib.  III.,  chap,  xxix.:  "  Incredibili  celeritate  magno  spatio 
paucis  diebus  confecto,  cum  iam  pecus  atque  extrema  impedimenta  ab  nostris  tenerentur, 
ipsi  densiores  silvas  peterent,  eiusmodi  sunt  tempestates  consecutae,  uti  opus  necessario 
intermitteretur  et  continuatione  imbrium  diutius  sub  pellibus  milites  contineri  non  possent." 

^Bellum  Gallicutn,  Lib.  I.,  chap.  liv.  :  "Caesar,  una  aestate  duobus  maximis  bellis 
confectis,  maturius  paullo,  quam  tempus  anni  postulabat,  in  hiberna  in  Sequanos  exercitum 
deduxit." 

^Tacitus,  Annales,  Lib.  I.,  chap.  xliv.  :  "Ob  imminentem  .  .  .  hiemem." 


THE  FEAST  OF  MARTINMAS 


25 


Vetera,^  when  they  mutinied.  In  order  to  turn  their  minds  to  something 
else,  Germanicus  undertook — autumn  being  far  advanced,  but  apparently 
no  snow  having  fallen  yet  and  there  being  no  frost — another  small  military 
expedition.  He  crossed  the  frontier,  and  invaded  the  enemy's  territory. 
There  were  two  ways  to  take.  He  chose  the  longer  one,  and  hurried  on; 
for  scouts  had  informed  him  that  a  certain  night  was  a  festival  night  for 
the  Germans,  and  gave  occasion  for  gay  banqueting.  In  a  beautiful  clear 
night  he  reached  the  village  of  the  Marsi,  and  surprised  them  completely 
during  their  feasting.^  This  can  only  refer  to  a  festival  held  at  the  begin- 
ning of  winter,  before  snow  and  frost  had  set  in,  which,  in  the  German 
climate,  can  hardly  have  been  at  any  other  time  than  in  the  first  half 
of  November.  In  the  second  half  Germanicus  would  have  had  to  encounter 
the  most  serious  difficulties  as  to  the  weather,  whilst  to  assume  that  the 
festival  had  been  in  October  would  not  leave  sufficient  time  for  the  with 
drawing  of  the  legions  into  winter  quarters,  the  mutiny,  and  the  warlike 
expedition  after  it.  So  we  have  a  right  to  say  that  a  German  festival  was 
held  in  the  first  half  of  November  as  far  back  as  a.d.  14,  while  the  date 
of  the  report  of  it  is  certainly  to  be  set  down  before  a.d.  117,  in  which 
year  Tacitus  died.  It  is  the  oldest  Germanic  festival  on  historical  record ; 
and  although  half  a  millenium  elapsed  before  it  was  mentioned  again, 
we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  its  existence.  And  it  is  mentioned  again 
before  the  Christian  Church  had  got  proper  hold  of  all  the  Western 
Germanic  tribes,  towards  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  when  St.  Martin 
had  become  a  great  saint  of  the  Church,  and  November  11,  the  date  of 
his  death,  had  been  made  his  day  of  commemoration. 


■  1  Tacitus,  Annales,  Lib.  L,  chap,  xlv.:  "Quintae  et  unaetvicesimae  legionum  sexagesimum 
apud  lapidem  (loco  Vetera  nomen  est)  hibernantium." 

^Ibid.,  chap.  1.  :  "  Delecta  longiore  via  cetera  accelerantur :  etenim  attulerant  explora- 
tores  festam  earn  Germanis  noctem  ac  solemnibus  epulis  ludicram.  Caecina  cum  expeditis 
cohortibus  praeire  et  obstantia  silvarum  amoliri  iubetur :  legiones  modico  intervallo 
sequuntur.  luvit  nox  sideribus  illustris,  ventumque  ad  vicos  Marsorum,  et  circumdatae 
stationes,  stratis  etiam  turn  per  cubilia  propterque  mensas,  nullo  metu,  non  antepositis 
vigiliis.  Adeo  cuncta  incuria  disiecta  erant,  neque  belli  timor ;  ac  ne  pax  quidem  nisi 
languida  et  soluta  inter  temulentos,"  etc. 


26  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

St.  Martin  was  born  in  a.d.  336,  and  died  in  401.  About  the  middle 
of  the  sixth  century  there  was  definitely  given  as  his  own  day  November  11, 
which  had  before  been  celebrated  in  Gaul  in  his  commemoration.  Whilst 
France  knows  nothing  of  a  popular  celebration  of  it,  Martinmas ^  in  early 
times  was  held  as  the  highest  festival  of  the  year  wherever  Western 
Germanics  lived,  the  banqueting  lasting,  in  the  sixth  century,  all  night  long 
till  morning  broke.  We  know  this  from  the  terms  in  which  the  Synod  of 
Auxerre  in  578  forbade  its  celebration. ^  Beda,  in  De  Temporum  Ratione, 
testifies  to  a  Germanic  festival  in  November,  saying  that  in  that  month, 
which  they  called  Blot-monath  or  Offering-month,  the  heathen  Germanics 
devoted  to  their  gods  their  cattle,  which  they  intended  to  kill.*  Martinmas, 
probably,  was  in  chief  view  when  in  589  the  Council  of  Toledo  interdicted 
the  same  nightly  feasting  for  all  saints'  days,^  and  the  Concilium  Cabilonense 
of  650  A.D.  repeated  the  prohibition.^ 

^A  very  brilliant  sketch  of  his  life  and  activity  is  given  by  Heino  Pfannenschmid, 
Germanische  Erntefeste,  Hannover,   1878,  pp.   193  ss.,  with  numerous  notes,  pp.  464  ss. 

^Pfannenschmid,  Ibid.,  p.  466,  note  10. 

^"Omnino  et  inter  supradictas  conditiones,  pervigilias,  quas  in  honore  domni  Martini 
observant,  omnimodo  prohibete,"  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  HI.,  col.  444, 
Synodus  Autissiodorensis,  A.D.  578,  v.  The  supradictae  conditiones  can  only  be  the  contents 
of  Canons  iii.  and  iv.,  which  run  as  follows:  "iii.  Non  licet  compensos  in  domibus 
propriis,  nee  pervigilias  in  festivitatibus  sanctorum  facere ;  nee  inter  sentes,  aut  ad  arbores 
sacrivos,  vel  ad  fontes  vota  exsolvere :  sed  quicumque  votum  habuerit,  in  ecclesia  vigilet, 
et  matriculae  ipsum  votum,  aut  pauperibus  reddat :  nee  seulptilia  aut  pede,  aut  homine  lineo 
fieri  penitus  praesumat.  iv.  Non  licet  ad  sortilegos,  vel  ad  auguria  respicere,  non  ad 
caragios,  nee  ad  sortes,  quas  sanctorum  vocant,  vel  quas  de  ligno,  aut  de  pane  faciunt, 
aspicere :  sed  quaecumque  homo  facere  vult ;  omnia  in  nomine  Domini  faeiat."  It  is 
important  to  notice  that  the  only  two  feasts  which  are  mentioned  by  their  name  by  that 
Synod  of  Auxerre  are  the  Calends  of  January  and  Martinmas,  and  from  that  the  conclusion 
may  be  drawn  that  the  heathen  customs  were  more  prominent  at  these  two  tides  than  at 
any  other. 

^ De  Temporum  Ratione,  chap,  xv.,  De  Mensibus  Anglorum:  ^^  Blotmanoth,  mensis 
immolationum,  quia  in  ea  pecora  quae  occisuri  erant,  Diis  suis  vovebant." 

^ Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  483,  Concilium  Toletanutn,  III.,  a.d. 
589,  xxiii.  :  "  Exterminanda  omnino  est  irreligiosa  consuetude,  quam  vulgus  per  sanctorum 
solemnitates  agere  consuevit ;  ut  populi,  qui  debent  offieia  divina  attendere,  saltationibus 
et  turpibus  invigilent  canticis." 

^Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  950,  Concilium  Cabilonense,  A.D.  650,  xix,: 
"  Malta  quidem  eveniunt,  quae  dum  levia  minime  corriguntur,  saepius  majora  eonsurgunt. 


THE   FEAST   OF   MARTINMAS  27 

The  veneration  of  St.  Martin  spread  very  rapidly  in  the  old  Church. 
After  God,  the  holy  cross,  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  blessed  confessors 
Hilarius  and  Martinus  were  held  in  the  highest  reputation  in  the  Gaul 
of  the  sixth  century,^  and  in  Great  Britain  things  were  not  much  different,^ 

Valde  enim  omnibus  noscitur  esse  indecorum,  quod  per  dedicationes  basilicarum,  aut 
festivitates  martyrum,  ad  ipsa  solemnia  confluentes  chorus  femineus  turpia  quidem  et  obscena 
cantica  decantare  videntur,  dum  aut  orare  debent,  aut  clericos  psallentes  audire.  Unde 
convenit,  ut  sacerdotes  loci  talia  a  septis  basilicarum,  vel  porticibus  ipsarum,  ac  etiam  ab 
ipsius  atriis  vetare  debeant  et  arcere.  Et  si  voluntarie  noluerint  emendare,  aut  excom- 
municari  debeant,  aut  disciplinae  aculeum  sustinere."  It  was  then  the  habit  to  sing  in 
these  days  worldly  love  songs  in  the  church,  to  dance  in  accompaniment  ot  them,  and  to 
banquet  in  the  same  sacred  place.  '*  Non  licet  in  ecclesia  choros  secularium,  vel  puellarum 
cantica  exercere,  nee  convivia  in  ecclesia  praeparare  :  quia  scriptum  est :  Domus  mea,  domus 
orationis  vocabittir"  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  445,  Synodus 
Autissiodorensis,  A.D.  578,  ix.  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1920-I, 
Concilium  Germanicum,  A.D.  742,  v.:  '*  Decrevimus  quoque,  ut  secundum  canones 
unusquisque  episcopus  in  sua  parochia  solicitudinem  gerat,  adjuvante  gravione,  qui  defensor 
ecclesiae  ejus  est,  ut  populus  Dei  paganias  non  faciat,  sed  omnes  spurcitias  abjiciat  et  respuat ; 
sive  profana  sacrificia  mortuorum,  sive  sortilegos,  vel  divinos,  sive  phylacteria  et  auguria, 
sive  incantationes,  sive  hostias  immolatitias,  quas  stulti  homines  juxta  ecclesias  ritu  pagano 
faciunt,  sub  nomine  sanctorum  martyrum  vel  confessorum,  Deum  et  sanctos  suos  ad  ira- 
cundiam  provocantes :  sive  illos  sacrilegos  ignes,  quos  Niedfyr  vocant ;  sive  omnes,  quae- 
cumque  sunt,  paganorum  observationes  diligenter  prohibeant." 

'*'  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol,  III.,  Epistola  Sanctae  Radegundis  ad  Episcopos, 
A.D.  567,  col.  370:  "Dei  et  sanctae  crucis,  et  beatae  Mariae  incurrat  judicium:  et  beatos 
confessores  Hilarium  et  Martinum,  quibus  post  Deum  sorores  meas  tradidi  defendendas, 
ipsos  habeat  contradictores  et  persecutores. "  The  Concilium  Turonense,  Ibid.,  col.  371-72, 
replied  to  this  letter  mentioning  Martin  in  almost  equal  terms,  saying  ot  God  :  "  Beatum 
Martinum  peregrina  de  stirpe  ad  inluminationem  patriae  dignatus  est  dirigere  misericordia 
consulente.  Qui  licet  apostolorum  tempore  non  fuerit,  tamen  apostolicam  gratiam  non 
effugit.     Nam  quod  defuit  in  ordine,  suppletum  est  in  mercede,"  etc. 

'^When  the  Roman  missionaries  under  Augustine,  sent  by  Pope  Gregory  to  Great 
Britain,  settled  down  in  Canterbury,  they  found  there  a  St.  Martin's  Church,  as  Bede 
states,  of  Roman  origin — a  church  which,  after  some  medieval  reconstructions,  still  exists, 
and  is  not  the  least  interesting  of  the  antiquities  of  Canterbury.  Beda,  Historia  Eccle- 
siastica  gentis  Anglorum,  I.,  chap,  xxvi.,  ed.  Plummer,  Oxford  1896,  p.  47:  "  Erat 
autem  prope  ipsam  civitatem  ad  orientem  ecclesia  in  honorem  sancti  Martini  antiquitus 
facta,  dum  adhuc  Romani  Brittanniam  incolerent,  in  qua  regina,  quam  Christianam  fuisse 
praediximus,  orare  consuerat."  (Her  name  was  Bercta,  and  she  was  a  Frankish  princess.) 
St.  Martin,  besides,  had  at  Canterbury  a  potticus,  in  which  King  Aedilberct  was  buried 
(Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  II.,  chap.  v.  :  "  Defunctus  veto  est  rex  Aedilberct  die  XXiiii.   mensis 


28  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

whilst  in  Germany  the  cult  of  the  same  saint  spread  simultaneously  with 
Christianity.^  The  popularity  of  St.  Martin  was  bound  to  increase  from 
the  fact  that  his  day  was  placed  at  the  greatest  ancient  Germanic  festive 
tide;  and  however  scarce  is  our  information  about  medieval  popular  festivals, 
we  know  of  no  other  so  much  as  we  do  about  Martinmas  as  a  time  of 
feasting  and  banqueting.  If  Martin  is  called  the  drunken  saint,  there  is 
no  doubt  about  the  significance  of  that  expression,  nor  is  there  any  about 
the  so-called  Martin-geese.  The  oldest  St.  Martin's  goose  of  which  we 
know  is  a  silver  one,  and  belongs  to  the  year  1171,  although  the  testimony 
by  which  it  is   warranted   is   not   contemporaneous.      A  monk  of  Corvei, 


Februarii  post  XX.  et  unum  annos  acceptae  fidei,  atque  in  porticu  sancti  Martini  intro 
ecclesiam  beatonim  apostolorum  Petri  et  Pauli  sepultus  ubi  et  Bercta(e)  regina  condita 
est.")  St.  Ninian  had  a  bishop  seat,  which  was  later  on  celebrated  through  the  name  and 
the  church  of  St.  Martin  (Beda,  Hist.  Eccl,,  III.,  chap.  iv.  :  "Cuius  sedem  episcopatus, 
sancti  Martini  episcopi  nomine  et  ecclesia  insignem  .  .  .  iam  nunc  Anglorum  gens  obtinet "). 
Ninian  probably  died  earlier  than  St.  Martin  {Lives  of  St.  Ninian  and  St.  Kentigern,  ed. 
Forbes,  1874,  xxvii.,  xxxviii.,  256,  266,  271-273).  There  was  also  a  monastery  called 
after  that  saint  (Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.,  IV.,  xvi. :  "  Et  abbas  monasterii  beati  Martini,  ..." 
and  "corpusque  eius  ab  amicis  propter  amorem  St.  Martini,  cuius  monasterio  praeerat, 
Turonis  delatum  atque  honorifice  sepultum  est";  and  Beda,  Historia  Abbatuin,  §  6,  ed. 
Plummer,  p.  369  :  "  Ab  Agathone  papa  archicantore  ecclesiae  beati  apostoli  Petri  et  abbate 
monasterii  beati  Martini  Johanne  .  .  ."  and  Historia  Abbatum  auctore  Anonymo, 
ed.  Plummer,  in  Venerabilis  Baedae  Opera  Historica,  Oxford  1296,  Vol.  I.,  p.  391,  §  10: 
"  Abbatemque  monasterii  beati  Martyni").  Mr.  Plummer,  in  his  edition  of  Bede's  His- 
torical Writitigs  (Vol.  II.,  p.  43)  says:  "To  the  popularity  of  the  cultus  of  St.  Martin 
(who  died  between  397  and  401 )  in  Britain,  Venantius  Fortunatus  (born  about  530  at  Ceneta 
and  having  died  as  bishop  of  Poitiers  after  600)  bears  striking  testimony,  saying  of  him  : 
"  Quem  Hispanus,  Maurus,  Persa,  Britannus  amat."  Cf.  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils 
and  Ecclesiastical  Documents  relating  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland^  I.,  13,  where  see  note 
for  references  illustrating  the  connection  of  St.  Martin  with  the  British  Isles ;  Venantius 
Fortunatus,  Vita  S.  Martini,  Lib.  IV.,  vv.  621  ss.  {Monumenta  Historica  Germaniae, 
4to  series). 

^  Boniface  also  speaks  of  "  fundamenta  cuiusdam  destructae  a  paganis  ecclesiolae, 
quam  Willibrordus  ...  in  castello  Traiecto  repperit,  et  eam  proprio  labore  a  funda- 
mento  construxit  et  in  honore  S.  Martini  consecravit  {Monuvienta  Moguntina,  pp.  259- 
260,  ed.  Jaffe).  Ducange,  Glossariict?t,  under  Festum  S.  Martini:  "  Recensetur  inter  festa 
quae  celebrari  debent,  in  Lib.  VI.  Capitul.,  c.  189;  in  Capitulari  Aquisgran.,  A.D.  817, 
c.  46;  in  Capitulis  IValterii  Aureliani,  c.  18;  in  Concilio  Lugdunensi  sub  Inn.  III.,  etc.; 
in  Capitulari  Ahytonis  Episcopi,  Basiliensis,  c.  viii. ;  Beletus,  c.  163." 


THE   FEAST   OF   MARTINMAS 


29 


who,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  compiled  the  Annals  of  that 
monastery,!  ^q[\^  th^t  in  11 71  Othelricus  of  Svalenburg,  on  the  feast  of 
St  Martin,  because  he  was  a  member  of  the  fraternity  of  Corvei,  gave 
the  monks  as  a  present  a  silver  goose.  This  gift  was  probably  in  com- 
pensation for  a  payment  of  some  annual  duty  on  Martinmas.^ 

In  the  thirteenth  century  there  was  a  song  on  St.  Martin  known  through 
large  parts  of  Gaul  and  Germany,  which,  like  almost  all  songs  in  use  at 
Germanic  offering  tides,  was  repudiated  by  the  clergy  as  indecent.  It  was 
then  ascribed  to  some  evil  spirit,  and  a  story  was  popular  according  to 
which,  in  12 16,  a  demon  had  boasted  that  he  and  a  friend  of  his  composed 
that  song,  and  promulgated  it  over  a  large  territory.^  Public  bonfires  on 
Martinmas  can  be  proved  to  have  existed  as  early  as  1448,  when  Martinmas 
for  that  reason  was  called  Funkentag;'^  and  are  again  mentioned  about  the  end 
of  the  sixteenth  century  in  Fischart's  (+1590)  Gargantua,  where  baskets 
are  stated  to  have  been  burnt  in  the  St.  Martin's  fire.  Perhaps  it  has  also  to 
do  with  St.  Martin's  fires  that,  when  in  1557,  at  Augsburg,  a  house  was  burnt 


^  Leibnitz,  Scriptores,  II.,  308 ;  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Emtefeste,  p.  229. 

^ Annales  Corbejenses  in  Leibnitz's  Scriptores,  II.,  308:  "Othelricus  de  Svalenberg 
aigenteum  anserem  in  festo  S.  Martini  pro  fratemitate  (obtulit). "  Pfannenschmid,  Gernianische 
Emtefeste,  1878,  p.  505.  Old  Leibnitz,  Scriptores,  II.,  /ntrodmtio,  p.  28 :  "  Anserem  assatum 
in  festo  S.  Martini  per  omnes  fere  domos,  mensis  inferunt  Gennani.  .  .  .  In\ntat  anni 
tempus  :  turn  enim  anseres  pingues  habentur."  Pfannenschmid,  Ibid.,  p.  505,  beats  all 
speculators  about  the  connection  between  St.  Martin  and  geese,  by  the  simple  declaration 
that  St.  Martin's  day  is  just  the  time  of  the  year  when  geese  are  fat.  This  was  of  even 
greater  moment  in  fonner  centuries,  when  the  accumulation  of  food  was  attended  with 
considerable  difficulties,  and  domestic  animals  were  difficult  to  feed  during  winter  time. 
Compare  also  D.  Georg  Joachim  Marks,  Geschichte  vovt  Martini- Abend  und  Martins-Mann, 
Hamburg  und  Giistrow,   1772,  p.  20. 

3  The  story  is  told  by  Thomas  Cantipratensis,  who  in  1263  wrote  his  book  on  the 
bee  state.  It  is  contained  in  his  treatise  Bonum  universale  de  apibus:  "Quod  autem 
obscoena  carmina  finguntur  a  daemonibus  et  perditorum  mentibus  immittuntur,  quidam 
daemon  nequissimus,  qui  in  Nivella  urbe  Brabantiae  puellam  nobilem  anno  domini  12 16 
prosequebatur,  manifeste  populis  audientibus  dixit :  cantum  hunc  celebrem  de  Martino  ego 
cum  collega  meo  composui  et  per  diversas  terras  Galliae  et  Theutoniae  promulgavi.  Erat 
autem  cantus  ille  turpissimus  et  plenus  luxuriosis  plausibus." 

■•In  a  document  of  Count  Friedrich  zu  Moers  (A.  J.  Wallraf,  Altdeutsches  Worterbuch^ 
Koln,  p.  23).     Comp.  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  p.  71. 


30 


YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 


down,  a  report  expressly  remarks  that  the  young  fellows  when  feasting  and 
holding  Martinmas  had  neglected  it.^ 

According  to  a  seventeenth  century  source,^  in  Holland  the  boys,  on 
the  eve  of  Martinmas,  lit  fires,  singing : 

"  Stoockt  vyer,  mackt  vyer: 
Sinte  Marten  konit  hier 
Met  syne  bloote  arnien  ; 
Hy  sonde  hem  geerne  warmen." 

About  1230  an  Austrian  poet  represents  peasants  drinking  to  the  praise  and 
memory  of  St.  Martin.^  A  joke  connected  with  the  Martinmas  of  the  thirteenth 
century  is  preserved  to  us  in  the  poem  St.  MarttnsnachtA  A  rich  farmer  and 
jhis  people  have  got  drunk  in  honour  of  St.  Martin.  A  thief  breaks  into 
the  farmer's  stable,  and,  when  surprised  by  the  owner,  shakes  off  his  clothes, 
pretending  to  be  St.  Martin.  The  farmer,  believing  him,  goes  on  with  his 
banquet,  with  the  result  that  in  the  morning  he  finds  his  stable  empty.  That 
the  festivity  was  equally  familiar  to  monasteries  is  apparent  from  some 
documents.  The  monastery  of  Eilenrostorf  received  every  year,  from  1353, 
a  quantity  of  wine — half  for  the  mass  and  half  for  the  convent  who  were  to 
drink  it  in  vigilia  sancti  Martini.^  What  it  received  before  that  date  is 
not  known. 

A.D.  1369  we  have  a  description  of  a  celebration  of  Martinmas.  A 
knight,  von  Schwichelt,  possessor  of  Liebenburg,  asked  Duke  Otto  of 
Gottingen  to  spend  Martinmas  with  him.  Duke  Otto  had  gone  to  Harzburg, 
which  he  had  taken  from  the  Count  of  Wernigerode,  at  the  same  time 
compelling,   by  surprise  of  the  town  of  Alfeld,  the  Bishop  of  Hildesheim 

^Birlinger,  Aus  Schwaben,  II.,  p.  132.  This  happened  on  October  10.  Nevertheless 
that  feasting  was  called  Martinsnacht ,  apparently  because  in  olden  times  it  had  been  held 
on  November  11. 

'^  Gisbertus  Voetius,  Selectae  Disputationes  Theologicae,  Utrecht,  1659,  p.  448. 

^Der  Strieker,  Kleine  Gedichte,  V.,  167,  Grimm's  Worierbuch,  IV.  I,  1263:  "Dem  guoten 
sant  Martine  ze  lobe  und  zu  minnen." 

^Hagen,  Gesammtaienteuer,  Stuttgart  und  Tubingen,  1850,  No.  50. 

'  Reimann,  Deutsche  Volksfeste,  284 ;  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Emtefeste,  p.  222 ; 
Marks,  Geschichtevom  Martini- Abend  und  Marlinsmann,  Hamburg,  1772,  p.  20. 


THE   FEAST   OF   MARTINMAS 


31 


to  provide  the  castle  of  Harzburg  with  food.  On  Martinmas  eve  he  arrived 
with  his  army  before  Liebenburg,  and  was  invited  for  St.  Martin's  banquet. 
He  accepted  the  invitation,  and  on  the  following  day  presented  his  host 
with  the  castle  of  Harzburg.^  Oswald  von  Wolkenstein  (1367-1445)  sings: 
Trinckh  martein  wein,  und  genss  I'ss  Ott^'^  and  bones  of  Martin's  geese 
were  used  for  prophecy  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century.^  Sebastian 
Franck  (1500-1545)  says  in  his  Weltbuch  of  the  Francs  :  "Firstly  they  praise 
St.  Martin  with  good  wine  and  geese,  until  they  are  drunk.  Unblessed  is 
the  house  which  has  not  a  goose  to  eat  that  night;  then  they  also  tap 
their  new  wines  which  they  have  kept  so  far,"  to  which  he  adds  a  description 
of  a  St.  Martin's  game :  "  In  Franconia  at  that  day  people  enclosed  in  a 
circuit  or  circle  two  boars,  which  tore  each  other  to  pieces.  The  meat  was 
divided  among  the  people,  the  best  bits  being  given  to  the  authorities."* 

^ Bodonis  Chronicon  pict.  in  Leibnitz's  Scriptores  Br.,  III.,  385,  H.  Pfannenschmid, 
Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.  500 ;  and  Uralte  Sachsen  Chronic  by  Caspar  Abel,  written 
about  1455  (^<i  annum  1375).  Pfannenschmid,  Ibid.:  "HertogOtto  de  bose  to  Getting 
halde  eyn  grot  hop  des  Quecks  uth  Holt-Lande  van  der  Wulfesborch,  unde  wolde  darmidde 
driven  in  dat  Lant  to  Getting,  so  legerde  he  sick  under  der  Levenborch,  unde  was  St. 
Martens- Avend,  dar  spysen  se  one  myt  alle  sinen  Volke,  unde  dem  Quecke,  des  Morgens 
wolde  he  de  Koste  betalen,  des  wolden  de  van  Schwichgelde  nyn  Gelt  vore  hebben,  unde 
ereden  sine  Gnaden  darmidde,  do  dreyff  he  sin  Roffqueck  in  dat  Lant  to  Getting,  unde 
spisede  dar  sine  Borghe  midde,  unde  gaff  do  denen  Schwichgelde  vor  de  Woldad  de 
Hartesborch  to  erve  unde  to  egen,  de  worden  so  derna  der  Borch  Goddes  Friint,  unde 
aller  werlde  vyent." 

"^  Odo  =  November  13. 

^Dr.  Hartlieb,  physician-in-ordinary  to  Duke  Albrecht  Oi  Bavaria,  in  his  BucA  aller 
verboten  kunst,  ungelaubens  und  der  zatiberei  (1455)  says:  "Als  man  zu  sant  Martinstag 
oder  nacht  die  gans  geessen  hat,  so  behalten  die  eltesten  und  die  weisen  das  prustpain,  und 
lassen  das  trucken  werden  bis  morgens  fru  und  schawen  dan  das  nach  alien  umbstenden, 
vorn  hinden  und  in  der  mitt.  Darnach  so  urtailen  si  dan  den  winter  wie  er  sol  werden  kalt 
warm  trucken  oder  nass,  und  sind  so  vest  des  gelauben,  das  si  darauf  verwetten  ir  gut  und 
hab."  A  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  that  habit  was  still  in  use,  as  we  know  from  J. 
Golems,  Calendarium  Oeconomicum  (1591),  and  from  Olorinus  Variscus  and  his  writing 
on  St.  Martin's  geese. 

**'Nach  dem  kompt  S.  Martin,  da  jsset  ein  jeder  Haussvater  mit  seinem  Ilaussgesinde 
eine  Ganss,  vermag  ers,  kaufft  er  jnen  Wein  vnd  Medt,  vnd  loben  S.  Martin  mit  voll  seyn, 
essen,  trincken,  singen";  Heinrich  Panthaleon,  of  Bale  (1522-1595),  writes  in  Der  deutschen 
Nation  Heldenbuch  :    "Die  Leute  pflegen  zum  Gedachtniss  S.  Martini  in  Deutschland  mit 


32 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


A  writer  of  the  same  century  says;  "We  Germans  think  Shrove  Tuesday, 
St.  Burkhard,  and  St.  Martin,  Pentecost,  and  Pasch,  the  times  when  people 
should  be  gay  and  banquet  more  than  at  other  seasons  of  the  year:  on  St. 
Burkhard's  eve  for  the  sake  of  the  new  must ;  on  Martinmas  perhaps  for 
the  sake  of  the  new  wine;  then  people  roast  fat  geese,  all  the  world 
rejoicing."  ^ 

Sermons  of  the  seventeenth  century,  even  when  coming  from  Protestant 
pulpits,  have  many  things  to  tell  about  Martinmas  and  its  geese.^  The 
popular  rime  says : 

"  Auff  Martini  schlacht  man  feiste  Schwein, 
Und  wird  allda  der  Most  zu  Wein."^ 

On  the  eve  of  Martinmas  the  devil  had  free  play.     On  that  night,  in  the 


frohlichem  Gemlith  St.  Martensnacht  zu  begehen,  die  Martensganss  zu  essen,  und  mit  den 
Nachbaren  und  dem  Hausgesinde  frohlich  zu  sein,  gleich  als  wenn  aller  Dinge  Ueberflusi 
mit  Sanct  Martino  der  Armen  Patron  vorhanden  say;"  Jod.  Lorichius,  Aberglatiben,  1593, 
p.  52.  Simrock,  Martinslteder,  xiv.  ;  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Erntefesie,  pp.  500-1, 
where  other  proofs  for  similar  festivities  are  given  from  Thomas  Naogeorgus  (Thomas 
Kirchmaier  of  Straubingen,  1511-1563),  Regnum  Papistkum,  Lib.  IV.  ;  Joannes  Boemus 
Aubanus,  De  Omnitan  Gentium  Kitibus,  1520,  fol.  Ix.  ;  G.  Forster,  Frische  Liedlein,  II 
Parts,  Nlirnberg,  1540,  No.  5,  and  many  items  of  later  dates. 

^  Scheible,  Schaltjahr,  II.,  95,  from  Agricola. 

^  Scheible,  Schaltjahr,  I.,  187,  Atis  einer  protestantischen  Martinspredigt  des  17. 
Jahrhunderts  :  "  Und  weil  heute  der  Tag  Martini  gefallet,  daran  es  die  Ganse  leider 
iibel  haben,  als  will  ich  zu  einer  Martinsgans  bitten,  und  dieselbe  anatomieren  und 
zutheilen.  Nicht  aber  wie  die  Aberglaubischen,  nach  jetzt  erzahltem  heidnischem  Gebrauch, 
von  kiinftiger  Winterwitterung  aus  dem  Brustbein  weissagen,  sondern  was  wir  bei  einer 
Gans  christlich  zu  lernen  haben,  anzeigen.  Richtet  ihr  hierauf  eure  beharrliche  Andacht. 
— Es  isset  Mancher  eine  Gans  nach  der  andern,  und  ist  und  bleibet  selbst  eine  Gans,  versteht 
und  weiss  nicht,  was  Gott  und  die  Natur  uns  an  derselben  zu  studiren  gegeben."  Ibid., 
I.,  p.  194:  "Ganse  geben  Speis,  sonderlich  um  diese  Martinszeit.  Drum  ihnen  auch 
der  Martinstag  sehr  gefahrlich  ist.  .  .  .  Verstandige  Koche  wissen  sie  mit  gutem  Beifusz, 
Aepfeln  und  Kastanien  zu  fullen  und  zu  einem  lieblichen  Schmack  zu  geben."  On 
Martinmas  gaieties  a  mass  of  material  is  contained  in  Mussard,  Ceremoniae  Ecclesiasticae, 
p.  117;  Blumberg,  Delineatio  frateniitatum  Calendarum,  p.  155;  Calvor,  Ritual  EccL, 
P.  II.,  p.  362;  Keisler,  Antiquitates  Stptentrionales ;  Pirnische  Chronick  in  Meiuken,  II., 
p.   1554;   Marks,  Geschichte  vom  Martini- Abend  und  Martinsmann,  Hamburg,   1772. 

^Grasse,  Des  deutschen  Landmanns  Practica,  Dresden,  1858,  p.  27. 


THE   FEAST  OF  MARTINMAS  33 

shape  of  a  man  dressed  in  a  long  wolf-skin  coat,  he  appeared  in  1594  at 
Spandau,  Brandenburg,  to  a  young  fellow,  and  raged  about  in  an  indescrib- 
able fashion,  so  that  all  the  persons  possessed  had  to  be  brought  to  the 
high  altar  of  the  church  for  protection.^ 

In  the  seventeenth  century  the  police  began  to  become  an  important 
factor  in  the  development,  or  rather  suppression,  of  popular  usages.  So 
on  February  4,  1605,  and  June  22,  1649,  in  old  Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 
it  was  forbidden  to  bake  Mertins  hornichen  for  sale.  The  same  happened 
to  the  other  Martin's  festivities  at  many  places. 2  Yet  some  lived  on  for  a 
considerable  time  as  quasi  legal  institutions,  e.g.^  in  the  Rhine  country, 
where  such  festivities  existed  till  after  1750,^  being  given  as  a  gift  in  return 
for  the  duties  paid  at  that  term. 

^Scheible,  Sckaltjakr,  IV.,  462,  Schreckliche  Zeitung. 

2  "Die  libel  practicirten  Martins-  oder  Herbsttriinke "  ("  Wurzburger  Heibstinstruction " 
in  Werndii  Tractatus  vom  Zehntrechte,  p.  324  (ed.  de  anno  1708) ;  Pfannenschmid,  Ger- 
manische  Erntefesie,  p.  224 ;   comp.  also  Schiller's  Glossar.,  p.   123. 

^Al  Oberaussem,  in  1750,  at  the  banqueting  {Hofessen)  on  Sunday  after  Martinmas, 
the  persons  who  took  part  were  sixty-one.  They  dined  at  two  tables,  at  a  tisch  auffm 
soller  and  a  specktisch  ifn  haus  (Armin  Tille,  Archiviibersicht,  p.   102). 


CHAPTER  IV. 


MARTINMAS,  AND  THE  TRI-PARTITION  OF  THE  YEAR. 

Martinmas  is  the  earliest  term  occurring  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  Laws. 
Church-scot  had  to  be  paid  then,  so  early  as  the  seventh  century/  though 
the  church  to  which  it  was  to  be  paid  was  that  of  the  place  at  which  a  man 
stayed  in  the  beginning  of  the  calendar  year,^  He  who  failed  to  do  so 
was   to    forfeit    sixty   shillings,    and    render    the    church-scot    twelve-fold.^ 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  HI.,  215, 
Laws  of  King  Ine  of  Wessex,  about  A.D.  690  (688-693):  "Be  Ciric-sceattum.  Ciric- 
sceattas  sin  agifene  be  Sancte  Martines  mgessan." 

"^ Ibid.,  HI.,  217,  Ixi.  :  "Be  ciric-sceatte.  Ciric-sceat  mon  sceal  agifan  to  tham  healme 
and  to  tham  heordhe  the  semon  on  bidh  to  middum  wintra." 

^  In  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  of  England  (London),  1840,  II.,  460.  In 
the  canons  enacted  under  King  Edgar  (ca.  a.d.  967)  it  was  enjoined  that  plough-alms 
were  to  be  given  xv.  days  after  Easter ;  and  a  tithe  of  young  by  Pentecost ;  and  of 
earth-fruits  by  All  Saints;  and  Rome-"feoh"  by  St.  Peter's  mass;  and  church-scot  by 
Martinmass  ("serest  sulh-oelmessan  xv.  niht  onufan  Estron.  and  ge&gudhe  teodhunge  be 
Pentecosten.  and  eordh-westma  be  Omnium  Sanctorum,  and  Rom-fe6h  be  Petres-maessan, 
and  ciric-sceat  be  Martinus-maessan  ").  This  is  the  reading  of  MS.  D,  a  small  folio  of  the 
middle  of  the  eleventh  century.  Corpus  Christi,  201  (v.  18) ;  X,  a  large  octavo  MS.  of 
the  tenth  century,  Bodleana,  Junius,  121,  has  Ealra  Hdlgena  jnisssan  instead  of  Omnium 
Sanctorum,  and  has  the  following  sentence  immediately  preceding  to  the  quoted  Anglo- 
Saxon  text :  ";and  riht  is  that  man  thisses  mynegige  to  Eastrum.  odhre  sidhe  to  gang-dagum. 
thriddan  sidhe  to  middan-sumera.  thonne  bidh  msest  folces  gegaderod  ; "  whilst  it  adds 
after  the  above  sentence  from  D  the  following:  "and  leoht-gesceotu  thriwa  on  geare. 
serest  on  Easter-sefen.  and  odhre  sidhe  on  candel-msesse  sefen.  thriddan  sidhe  on  Ealra 
Halgena  msesse  sefen."  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  VI.,  i,  col.  657-8,  Leges 
Ecclesiasticae   Regis   Edgari,  ca.    A.D.    967,    iii.  :   "  Quisque  fetuum   decimas    omnes   ante 


MARTINMAS,    AND   THE  TRI-PARTITION   OF  THE   YEAR  35 

This  term  lived  on  a  considerable  time.  It  was,  at  any  rate,  preserved 
as  late  as  the  reign  of  Henry  the  First  (1100-1135),  but  probably  a  good 
deal   longer.^      It   is   like   many   other   Germanic   institutes   also  found  in 


Pentecosten  persolvito :  terrae  quidem  fructuum  decimas  ante  aequinoctium  pendito :  ipsas 
autem  seminum  primitias  sub  festum  divi  Martini  reddito."  Ibid.,  col.  659,  iii.  :  "  Et 
omnis  decimatio  juventutis  reddita  sit  ad  Pentecosten,  et  terrae  frugum  ad  aequinoctium, 
et  omne  ciricsceattum  ad  festum  sancti  Martini,  per  plenam  forisfacturam  quam  judicialis 
liber  dicit."  Ibid.,  col.  776  {Concilium  Aenhamense,  A.D.  1009)  x.  :  "Jura  Deo  debita 
unusquisque  annuatim  recte  pendito :  aratri  scilicet  eleemosynam  decimaquinta  nocte  a 
Paschate :  fetuum  seu  novellorum  gregum  decimas,  ad  Pentecosten ;  et  terrae  fructuum,  ad 
festum  omnium  Sanctorum,  xi.  Census  Romae  debitus  [quem  denarium  sancti  Petri  vocant] 
and  festum  sancti  Petri  ad  vincula  (alias  Missam  Petri)  persolvatur :  et  ecclesiae  census, 
qui  cyrick  sceat  appellatur,  ad  Missam  sancti  Martini.  xii.  et.  xiii.  Luminarium 
census  ter  quotannis  penditor".  A  mention  of  this  institute  occurs  in  Cnut's  letter  from 
Rome  (Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes  of  England  {X^x^Aoxi)  1840,  I.,  p.  104:  "  Et 
in  festivitate  Sancti  Martini  primitiae  seminarum  ad  ecclesiam  sub  cujus  parochia  quisque 
degit,  quae  Anglice  'ciric-sceatt'  nominatur")  {Ibid,  in  the  notes).  Also  Heming,  21  :  "  De 
cirisceato  de  Perscora  dicit  vicecomitatus,  quod  ilia  ecclesia  de  Perscora  debet  habere 
ipsum  cirisceattum  de  omnibus  ccc.  hidis,  scilicet  de  unaquaque  hida  ubi  francus  homo 
manet  unam  summam  annonse,  et,  si  plures  habet  hidas,  sint  liberse,  et  si  dies  fractus 
fuerit,  in  festivitate  Sancti  Martini  ipse,  qui  retinuerit  det  ipsam  summam,  et  undecies 
persolvat  abbati  de  Perscora,  et  reddat  forisfacturam  abbati  de  Westminstre  quia  sua  terra 
est"  {Ibid.).  Cnut's  letter  is  also  printed  in  the  Acta  Coftciliorum.Vaiism,  1714,  Vol.  VI., 
I.  col.  846,  Epistola  Canuti  Regis  ad  Anglorwn  proceres,  A.D.  1031  :  "Omnium  debita, 
quae  secundum  legem  antiquam  debemus,  sint  persoluta:  scilicet  eleemosyna  pro  aratris, 
et  decimae  animalium  ipso  anno  procreatorum,  et  denarii,  quos  Romam  ad  sanctum 
Petrum  debetis,  sive  ex  urbibus,  sive  ex  villis,  et  mediante  Augusto  decimae  frugum,  et 
in  festivitate  sancti  Martini  primitiae  seminum,  ad  ecclesiam  sub  cujus  parochia  quisque  degit, 
quae  Anglice  Curcset  nominatur."  Bye  and  bye  Easter  creaps  into  the  number  of  these 
terms  {Acta  Conciliortim,  Parisiis,  1714,  VI.,  I,  col.  899,  Leges  Ecclesiasticae  Canuti  Regis, 
A.D.  1032),  where  the  terms  enumerated  are:  "a  fortnight  after  Easter;"  "Pentecost;" 
"All  Saints,"  whilst,  besides,  Peter's  penny  is  to  be  paid  at  Peter  and  Paul,  and  the 
firstlings  of  the  seeds  at  Martinmas  ;  also  three  times  a  year  the  candle  money  has  to  be 
paid  {Ibid.,  col.  899,  xii.):  "at  Pasch,"  "at  All  Saints,"  and  "at  Mary's  Purification"; 
Ibid.,  col.  908,  xvi.  ;  col.  909,  xvii.,  xix ;  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  XL,  524. 

1  Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  520  {Leges  Regis  Henrici  Primi,  xi.,  §  4):  "Qui  cyric- 
sceattum  tenebit  ultra  festum  Sancti  Martini,  reddat  eum  episcopo,  et  undecies  persolvat, 
et  regi  1.  solidos."  This  institute  is  commented  upon  by  Lingard,  Altertiimer  der 
angelsdchsischen  Kirche,  ed.  by  von  Ritter,  Breslau,  1847,  p.  56.  Compare  David  Wilkins, 
Concilia  Magnae  Britanniae  et  Hiberniae,  London,  1734,  I.,  pp.  59,  302;  and  Pfannen- 
schmid,   Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.   204. 


36  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Spain,  whither  the  Goths  apparently  had  carried  it,^  and  in  Germany,  where 
it  obtained  all  through  the  Middle  Ages.  There  the  church  tax  falling-  due 
at  Martinmas  was  even  called  St.  Martin's  penny,^  when  the  payment  of 
it  had  been  shifted  to  Christmas,  a  change  which  seems  to  have  taken  place 
in  the  thirteenth  or  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century.  A  similar 
shifting  of  terms  is  to  be  observed  in  England  in  the  eleventh  century.^ 
Church-scot  was  not  the  only  payment  to  be  made  at  the  beginning  of 
winter.  Then  was  also  paid  an  instalment  of  the  wages  of  female  servants, 
which  were  due  three  times  a  year,  viz.,  at  the  beginning  of  winter,  at 
mid-Lent,  and  at  the  beginning  of  later  summer.^ 
Ij        In  Germany  Martinmas  was  legally  recognised  as  a  general  term  for  paying 

^  Vita  Sancti  Isidori  Agricolae,  Madriti  in  Castelia  ( + 1 1 30),  auctore  lohanne  Diacono 
(1275,  comp.  Potthast.,  Wegweiser,  766),  No.  15  (Ducange-Henschel,  Glossary,  1845, 
IV.,  304):  "Accidit,  quendam  virum  ex  eius  curia  ad  colligendam  exactionem  regiam, 
quae  vulgariter  dicitur  Martiniega,  in  tempore  hiemis  sub  mense  Decembri  Majorinum 
certissime  advenisse."     H.  Pfannenschmid,  Girmanische  Erntefeste,   1878,  p.  466. 

^Norrenberg,  Geschichte  der  Pfarreien  des  Dekanates  Miinchen  Gladbach,  Coin, 
1889,  p.  276,  No.  23.  A.D.  1324,  Dec.  24:  Among  the  revenues  of  the  church  at 
Giesenkirchen  is  named:  "denarium,  qui  dicitur  Mertyns  pennynge." 

^  John  Earle,  A  Hand- Book  to  the  Land-  Charters  and  other  Saxonic  Docutnents,  Oxford, 
1888,  pp.  344-345.  Eadward  (1042-1066),  his  Writ  of  Privileges  to  the  Abbey  of  Ramsey, 
CO.  Huntingdon  (Manuscript  of  century  xil.,  Cottoniana,  Otho,  B,  xiv.,  f.  257):  "and 
ealle  dha  gyltes  dha  belimpedh  to  mine  kinehelme  inne  lol  and  inne  Easteme  and  inne 
dha  hali  wuca  set  Gangdagas  on  ealle  thingan  al  swa  ic  he6  meseolf  ahe,  and  tolfreo 
ofer  ealle  Engleland,  widhinne  burhe  and  widhiitan,  set  gares  cepinge  and  on  sefrice 
styde,  be  wsetere  and  be  lande ;  habeant  et  omnes  forisfacturas  quae  pertinent  ad 
regiam  coronam  meam  in  natali  dominico,  in  pascha,  et  in  sancta  ebdomada  rogationum, 
in  omnibus  rebus  sicut  ipse  habeo,  et  per  totam  Angliam  infra  ciuitatem  et  extra,  in 
omni  foro  et  annuls  nundinis  et  in  omnibus  omnino  locis  per  aquam  et  terram,  ab 
omni  telonii  exactione  liberi  sint." 

■*  Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  436-7,  "Rectitude  Ancillae  :  ad  hiemale  companagium; 
ad  quadragesimalem  convictum ;  and  in  aestate,  i.e.  to  winter-sufle,  to  laengten-sufle,  and 
on  sumera."  A  similar  state  of  things  survived  up  to  the  present  time.  Notes  and  Queries, 
Ninth  Series,  February  4,  1899,  p.  85,  in  a  note  on  Pack  Rag  Feast  by  R.  Hedger 
Wallace  :  ' '  The  agricultural  labourers  in  some  of  the  North  Derbyshire  villages,  among 
other  old  customs,  retain  that  of  having  a  social  gathering  on  Old  Martinmas  Day  (23 
November),  which  is,  not  over  politely,  designated  the  Pack  Rag  Dinner.  The  name  refers 
to  the  fact  that  the  indoor  menservants  about  the  farms,  who  are  changing  masters  at 
Martinmas,  gather  together  their  belongings  for  removal  from  one  house  to  another." 


MARTINMAS,   AND  THE  TRI-PARTITION  OF  THE  YEAR  37 

\  duties  about  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  and  in  the  ninth  century  it  was  in 
general  use.^  In  thirteenth  century  ordinances  about  leases,  geese  or  fowls 
are  mentioned  which  are  delivered  at  Martinmas.^    We  know  of  such  gifts 

^  to  the  clergy  on  saints'  days  from  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century.  ^ 

^ Anton,  Geschichte  der  Landwirtschaft,  I.,  p.  341,  and  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische 
Emtefeste,  p.  204,  confuse  the  legal  recognition  of  an  existing  status  with  the  introduction 
of  it. 

^  Pfriindenordnung  of  the  Monastery  of  Geisenfeld,  ed.  by  Wittmann,  Miinchen,  1856; 
'Ltyitr,  Mitlelhochdeutsches  Ergdnzungsworterbuch,  I.,  p.  736  ;  Pfannenschmid,  GertJianische 
Emtefeste,  p.  205  :  "  leclichen  hof  und  vourt  unde  sunderlich  hus  verzendet  man  mit  eyme 
hune  ze  sente  Mertinstage,"  Sachsenspiegel,  ed.  by  Weiske,  Landrecht,  Book  H.,  Art.  48, 
§  5  ;  or,  as  another  version  has  it  :  "  Jeglichen  hoff,  odder  wiiste  hofstadt  vnd  sonderlich 
heuser,  verzehent  man  mit  einem  hune,  am  S.  Martinstag."  "An  St.  Martinstag  sind 
allerhand  pfleg  und  zins  verdient,"  Ibid.  H.,  58,  from  the  thirteenth  century,  Middle 
Germany. 

^ Acta  Coiuiliorum,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  HI.,  col.  352;  Cotuiliujji  Bracarense,  I., 
xxi.  :  "  Item  placuit,  ut  si  quid  ex  collatione  fidelium,  aut  per  festivitates  martyrum,  aut 
per  commemorationem  defunctorum  offertur,  apud  unum  clericorum  fideliter  colligatur ;  et 
constituto  tempore,  aut  semel,  aut  bis  in  anno,  inter  omnes  clericos  dividatur :  nam  non 
modica  ex  ipsa  inaequalitate  discordia  generatur,  si  unusquisque  in  sua  septimana  quod 
oblatum  fuerit,  sibi  defendat."  Ample  evidence  on  Martinmas  as  a  term  I  have  given  in 
my  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Weihnacht,  Leipzig,  1S93,  PP-  23-28,  and  pp.  291-296. 
Mark's  Geschichte  vom  Martini- Abend  und  Martins-Mann,  Hamburg,  1772,  contains  on 
pp.  26,  27  a  chapter  (13),  Von  der  Zahlungsfrist  auf  Martini,  and  mentions  there 
documents  of  a.d.  1294,  1318,  1460,  to  w^hich  are  to  be  added  those  mentioned  in 
E.  J.  Westphalen's  Monumenta  Inediia,  Part  IV.,  Preface,  p.  95.  Nicolaus  von  Werle, 
A.D.  1297,  gave  the  town  of  Waren  exemtionem  ab  angariis  et  petitionibus  omnibus  under 
the  condition  that  the  citizens  every  year  at  Martinmas  would  send  him  on  a  cart 
quantitatem  seminum  ;  Georg  Joachim  Mark's  Geschichte  vom  Martini-Abend  und 
Martins-Mann,  Hamburg,  1772,  p.  49.  Ibid.,  p.  81,  mentioned  that  two  generations 
earlier  Graf  Heinrich  of  Schwerin  concluded  a  bargain  with  Archbishop  Engelbrecht  of 
Koln  to  the  effect  that  the  archbishop  had  to  send  him  annually  at  Martinmas  fifteen 
harradas  or  barrels  of  wine.  That  book  is  devoted  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  the 
custom  of  the  so-called  Martinsviann  at  LUbeck,  which,  however,  it  fails  to  answer.  The 
origin  of  the  habit  is  unknown,  but  it  is  certain  that  in  1567  it  was  called  an  old  habit, 
that  on  Martinmas  the  Town  Council  of  the  Imperial  city  of  Liibeck  sent  a  barrel  of  old 
Rheinweinmost  to  the  Court  of  Schwerin.  The  story  is  firequently  related  in  modern 
times,  e.g.,  by  Mark ;  by  Reimann,  Deutsche  Volksfeste,  p.  28S ;  by  Pfannenschmid, 
Germanische  Emtefeste,  pp.  222,  223.  As  a  gift  in  return  for  the  duties  paid — a  kind 
of  Germanic  New  Year's  gift — the  Town  Council  of  Liibeck  received  some  deer.  The 
same  was  the  case  in  Wiirtemberg  monasteries.      There  the  prelate  was  under  obligation 


\ 


38  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

That  Martinmas  was  not  merely  a  term  like  other  terms,  but  the 
beginning  of  the  economic  year,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that,  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  accounts  run  from  Martinmas  to  Martinmas,  and  appointments 
were  made  for  the  same  period,  which  is  also  understood  to  cover  a  year 
of  taxation. 

As  long  as  the  duties  were  paid  in  natural  products,  the  terms  were 
the  last  days  within  which  the  duties  had  to  be  paid;  but  when  the  taxes 
were  paid  in  money,  they  became  the  days  on  which  the  payment  had  to 
be  made.^  As  early  as  a.d.  1253  money  payments  for  the  whole  of  the 
year  of  taxation  were  made  at  Martinmas.^  In  medieval  Frankfurt  a.  M.  the 
year  for  which  officials  were  appointed  ran  from  Martinmas  to  Martinmas, 
or  the  Sunday  previous.^     So  did  the  period  of  imperial  taxation,*  and  so 

to  give  the  Martin's  wine  to  all  people  of  his  place.  In  the  provostship  of  Hellingen 
each  holder  of  a  tenure  received  a  pint,  each  old  man  and  each  vk^oman  half  a  pint,  and 
male  and  female  servants,  and  even  the  baby  in  the  cradle,  a  quarter  (Nork,  Festkalender, 
p.  684  ;  Reinsberg-Uiiringsfeld,  Das  festliche  Jahr,  p.  340).  Wine  was  also  given  at 
Martinmas  at  the  court  of  the  Archbishop  of  Mayence,  at  Erfurt,  about  1494  (Michelsen, 
Der  Maimer  Hof  zu  Erfurt  am  Ausgange  des  Mittelalters  (1494),  Jena,  1853,  p.  26,  Regu- 
lations for  the  Kiichenmeister  (the  highest  economic  official)  :  "  Uff  sanct  Martins  abent  sal 
er  wein,  uff  weihenachten  opffergelt  und  uff  das  neue  jhor  zum  neuen  jhor  geben,  wie 
das  rothbuchlein  und  die  rechnung  in  belt,  und  auch  christsemeln  wie  sich  gehurth 
geben,")  and  about  1520  at  Wiirzburg,  as  Martin  Boemus  tells  us. 

^  Arnold,  Ztir  Geschichte  des  Eigentums  in  den  deutschen  Stddten,  Basel,  1 862,  p.  68. 

^Grimm,  Deutsche  KechtsaltertUmer,  III.,  607,  Oeringen,  A.D.  1253:  "  Swer  dirre 
stete  reht  hat,  der  sol  geben  ze  sante  Mertins  naht  achte  heller,  und  sol  daz  jar  alles  fri 
sin  zolles  halp." 

^  Frankfurt  a.  M.  Rechenbuch,  1358-59,  fol.  iG*  :  "  Hartmude  an  fizscher  porten  synen 
jarlon  31b.  3SS.  und  geng  sin  jar  an  des  suntags  vor  sant  Mertinsdag."  Ibid.,  1374,  fol. 
93*:  "  Sabbato  ipso  die  divisionis  apostolorum  Gultsmede  dem  wechter  uff  dem  thorne 
zu  Bonemesse  l  lb.  sines  penning  lones  unde  2  lb.  fur  3  achtel  komes  unde  ist  da  midde 
sines  halben  jarlons  bezalet  unde  ged  sin  jar  uz  unde  an  uff  sand  Mertinsdaig  unde  pliget 
man  yme  eyn  jar  zuo  gebin  61b.  6  achteil  kornes  unde  i  rog  ;"  Ibid.,  1474,  fol.  22^,  under 
"  Einzelinge  Innemen:"  "Item  2951b.  14  ss.  i,\\i.  han  wir  enphangen  von  Johan  Heller, 
schriber  im  spitale  zum  heiligen  geiste  als  der  uns  rechnunge  getan  hat  von  dem  jare  das 
Martini  anno  74  ussgangen  ist."      Actum  sabbato  post  dominicam  Esto  mihi  anno  1475. 

'^Frankfurt  Kechenbuch,  1435,  fol.  39%  under  "Einzelinge  ussgeben:"  "i  100  lb., 
141b.  mynner  3iss.  han  wir  ussgeben  und  bezalt  unserm  gnedigen  herren  dem  keiser 
keiser  Sigmund  die  gewonliche  des  rijchs  sture  von  sant  Mertinstag  izunt  vergangen  die  im 


MARTINMAS,   AND   THE  TRI-PARTITION   OF  THE   YEAR  39 

it  came  that  the  tax  had  to  be  paid  for  all  people  who  lived  to  see 
St.  Martin's  day,  but  not  for  those  who  died  before  it,  because  their  lives 
did  not  cover  the  whole  of  the  taxation  year.^  On  the  other  hand,  the 
amount  of  corn  and  wine  requisite  for  maintaining  the  owner  and  his 
servants  from  the  date  of  paying  the  taxes  till  Martinmas  was  free  from 
duty,2  Martinmas  being  the  last  term  for  paying  the  duties.^  In  the  medieval 
Frankfurt  a.  M.,  all  through  the  fourteenth  century,  the  taxes  were  raised 
in  November  or  December,^  as  they  are  now  in  Scotland,  the  taxation  year 
beginning  with  Martinmas.^  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  winter,  during 
which  all  agricultural  work  was  interrupted,  was  counted  from  Martinmas  till 
Sf.  Petri  ad  catJiedram  (Feb.  22),  for  during  that  time,  in  1297,  the  Ffahl- 
biirger  of  Frankfurt  a.  M.  were  required  to  have  a  household  within  the 
ramparts  of  the  city.^  That  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  Martinmas  in  the 
twelfth  century  also  was  considered  as  the  beginning  of  the  economic  year  is 
evident  from  a  document  of  a.d.  1149,  of  Hirzenach,  near  Boppard,  according 
to  which  once  a  year  judgment  was  held,  and  the  day  of  it  proclaimed  the 
day  after  Martinmas,'^  i.e.,  at  the  beginning  of  that  year  economic. 

In  medieval  Tirol  Martinmas  began  the  business  year  for  which  all  officials 

Walther  Swarzenberg,  Heinrich  vom  Rijne  und  andere  des  rades  frunde  umb  siner 
sunderlichen  begerunge  willen  zu  Pressburg  zuvor  bezalten  und  ussrichten  uff  sine  quer- 
tancil. " 

^  Bedebuch  of  Frankfurt  a.  M.  of  A.T>.  1476,  Ob.  19'':  "6ss.  von  siner  swieger  seligen 
wegen,  die  nach  sant  Mertins  dage  von  dodes  wegen  abegegangen  ist." 

^Karl  Blicher,  Die  Bevdlkerung  von  Frankfurt  a.  M.,  I.,  p.  263. 

^ Ibid.,  I.,  p.  354,  from  the  Citizettbook  of  1378.  He  who  does  not  pay  his  citizen 
money,  "sal  geben  zuschen  hie  vnd  sant  Mertins  dag  neist  kommet  10 lb.  und  4ss.  hell; 
wo  he  det  nit  entede,  so  mochte  man  sie  uff  in  zun  juden  uff  sinen  schaden  nemen  ; " 
Ibid.,  I.,  p.  485,  A.D.  1372,  the  inhabitants  of  the  villages  which  are  under  the  protectorate 
of  the  city  have  to  give  "eyme  schultheizsen  eynen  schilling  phennige  vnd  ein  hun  uff 
sant  Martins  dag";  Ibid.,  I.,  p.  486,  A.D.  1383,  "Und  sal  .  .  .  dem  schultheiszen  sin 
recht  uff  sant  Mertins  dag." 

■*  Karl  Biicher,  Zwei  mittelalterliche  Steuerordnungen  in  Kleinere  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte 
von  Dozenten  der  Leipziger  Hochschule,  Leipzig,   1894,  p.   139. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  150  :  The  duties  are  to  be  raised  (a.d.  1474)  "  eyn  iglich  der  nehst  komenden 
drj'  jare  zu  heben  und  zu  sant  Mertins  dag  schirst  kommend  anetzufahen. " 

^Biicher,  Bevdlkerung  von  Frankfurt  a.  M.,  I.,  p.  370. 

''  Annalen  fUr  Rheinische  Geschichtskunde,  Vol.   LXII.,  p.  39. 


40 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


were  elected,^  and  for  which  duties  and  interests  were  paid.^  If  anybody's 
property  was  burnt  before  St.  Martin's  day,  he  needed  to  pay  no  duties  that 
year.3  Besides,  Martinmas  began  the  rustic  winter  in  Tirol  so  late  as  the 
fifteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.*  When  drawing  conclusions  from  his 
discussion  of  popular  Martinmas,  Heino  Pfannenschmid,  who  firmly  believes 
that  the  Germanic  year  began  with  the  winter  solstice,  arrives  at  the  result^ 
"that  Martinmas  forms  the  conclusion  of  the  peasant  agricultural  year.  This 
is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  most  leases  end  about  Martinmas,  when  the 
rent  has  to  be  paid,  which  might  have  been  hard  for  many  a  one,  though 
the  harvest  had  been  reaped  and  turned  into  money.  To  this  refer  the 
sayings,  '  Martin  is  a  severe  man,'  and  '  Martin  is  a  bad  man.'^  So  other 
payments  are  made,  and  accounts  handed  in,  at  Martinmas;'^  all  sorts  of 
duties  in  kind  and  money  are  paid  to  monasteries,  churches,  parishes ;  church 
accounts  are  made  up  and  paid.  The  conclusion  of  the  old  agricultural 
and  crop  year  on  Martinmas  is  finally  marked  by  the  changing  of  servants. 
With  this  end  of  the  old  agricultural  and  crop  year  a  new  one  began.  Then 
the  new  lease  year  begins  both  in  Germany  and  England ;  new  servants  are 
hired.  ...  In  France  Martinmas  was   considered  the  beginning  of  winter 


^Zingerle,  Tiroler  IVeisiiimer,  II.,  p.  173,  a.d.  1580,  of  Nassereit  and  Torminz,  Upper 
Engadine :  '*  Sollen  drei  erbare  verstendige  mannspersonen  .  .  .  jarlich  an  sanct  Martins 
des  heiligen  bischofs  tag  .  .  .  zu  gwalthabern  und  dreierern  .  .  .  furgenomen,  erwolt  und 
erkiest  warden;"  Ibid.,  III.,  p.  258,  A.D.  1607,  of  Latsch,  Vintschgau  :  "  Ein  feldsaltner 
soil,  wo  es  kann,  auch  am  kassuntag,  wo  nit  doch  neyst  darnach  angenomen  und  seinen 
dienst,  als  hernach  folgt  unzt  auf  Martini  zu  verrichten  schuldig  sein ; "  Ibid.,  III.,  p.  193, 
A.D.  1614,  of  Kortsch,  Vintschgau :  "  Der  messner  allhier  hat  auch  jahrlich  am  st  Martinstag 
urlaub,  und  soil  auch  jahrlich  vor  der  ganzen  gemeinde  stehen  und  um  solches  amt  bitten  ;  " 
Ibid.,  II.,  p.  168,  A.D.  1674;  I.,  p.  79,  A.D.  1727. 

"^ Ibid.,  II.,  p.  310,  A.D.  1303  ;  II.,  p.  104,  A.D.  1416;  III.,  p.  351,  A.D.  1427. 

^ Ibid.,  III.,  p.  7,  A.D.  1440,  of  Glurns,  Vintschgau  :  "  Und  ob  dann  ainer  verprent  wurd 
oder  verprunne  vor  sand  Martins  tag,  derselb  sol  umb  dieselben  zins  desselben  jars  ledig  und 
los  sein."  A  long  list  of  other  cases  is  given  in  the  apparatus  to  my  Geschichte  der  deutschen 
Weihnacht,  p,  293. 

^Zingerle,  Tiroler  Weistiiiner,  IV.,  p.  33,  a.d.  143 i,  of  Partschins ;  Ibid.,  III.,  p.  65, 
A.D.  1630,  of  Burgeis. 

*  Germanische  Erntefeste,  Hannover,  1878,  p.  237. 

^  Nork,  Festkalender,  p.  683,  and  Simrock,  Martins  Lieder,  xv. 

'  Leoprechting,  Aus  dent  Leckrain,  p.  200;  Birlinger,  Aus  Schwaben,  II.,  132. 


MARTINMAS,  AND  THE  TRI-PARTITION  OF  THE  YEAR  41 

and  of  the  new  year,  the  legend  of  St.  Martin  explaining  the  latter  fact 
as  a  proof  of  the  high  esteem  and  reverence  in  which  that  Saint  was 
held.  But  in  Germany  also  the  time  about  Martinmas  must  have  been 
considered  as,  in  a  certain  respect,  the  beginning  of  the  year.  As  the  day 
began  with  the  eve,  so  for  the  ancient  Germans  the  new  year  could  begin 
with  the  beginning  of  winter  at  Martinmas.  After  the  time  of  Gregory  of 
Tours,  even  a  new  era  was  computed  from  St.  Martin's  death,  just  as  an  era 
was  computed  from  Christ's  death."  ^  Montanus^  noted  that  formerly  every- 
where, and  in  his  time  still  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  the  lease  year 
and  agricultural  year  closed  with  Martinmas,  to  which  Pfannenschmid'  added 
that  that  was  also  the  case  in  Lower  Saxony  and  in  other  provinces  of 
Germany.  The  Church  Ordinance  of  Hoya  of  1573*  fixed  Martinmas  as  the 
date  for  the  elders  of  the  church  to  lay  the  accounts  before  the  officials  in 
presence  of  the  minister.  Pfannenschmid  gives  a  long  list  of  facts  in  support 
of  Martinmas  being  an  old  term.  Male  and  female  farm  servants  changed 
their  places  at  Martinmas.^  About  Martinmas,  at  Seelze  near  Hannover, 
male  farm  servants  changed.^  Elsewhere  female  farm  servants  changed,^ 
and  in  other  regions  all  servants  did.^  In  the  Havel  country  it  was  so 
till  a  short  time  ago.  Now  they  change  at  Christmas.^  Also  the  lease  year 
began  at  Martinmas  in  Germany  and  England.^"  Even  Grotefend  (who  has 
been  completely  led  astray  by  Weinhold's  theories,  according  to  which  the 
Germanic  year  was  divided  by  solstices  and  equinoxes)  has  to  confess"  that 
among  the  country  folk  in  various  districts  Martinmas  means  the  beginning 
of  winter,  where  a  dual  division  of  the  year  prevails. 


^  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.  511. 

^  Volksfeste,  I.,  55.  ^  Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.  511. 

^Richter,  H.,  359;  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.  511. 

^Schambach,  IVorterbuch,  131.  ^Waldmann,  Eichsf elder  Gebrduche,  15. 

^Danneil,  Altmdrkisckes  IVorterbuch,  132. 

^Kuhn  und  Schwartz,  Norddeutsche  Sagen,  H.,  401  ;  Birlinger,  Aus  Schwabeti,  H.,  132. 

^Ibid. 

^"Nork,  Festkalender,  p.  683;  Simrock,  Mythologie,  574;  Miilhause,  Urreligion,  p.  308; 
Rochholz,  Wandelkirchen,  p.  14. 

^^ "  Martinstag  ist  bei  der  Zweiteilung  des  Jahres  provinciell  als  Anfang  des  Winters 
gebrauchlich "  (Zeitrechnung,   I.,   1 19). 


42  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

In  German  folk-belief  there  is  still  a  faint  recollection  of  Martinmas  being 
the  old  Germanic  New  Year.  It  is  in  some  phrases  still  used  as  identical 
with  year,  or  with  winter,  as  the  phrase  went  previously.  Instead  of:  "a 
man  has  lived  through  many  years,"  the  folk  say :  The  man  has  helped  to 
eat  many  a  St.  Martin's  goose.^     The  old  hexameter, 

"  Iss  Ganss  Martini,  trink  Wein  ad  circulum  anni," 

also  alludes  to  Martinmas  as  the  beginning  of  the  year,  when  people 
drank  good  luck  to  a  new  annual  course. 

Beside  the  legal  institution  of  termly  duties  stands  that  of  regular 
assemblies,  the  so-called  not-ordered  law  courts.  It  was  shown  before  that 
there  existed  among  the  Germanics  sometimes  three  (originally  held  at  mid- 
November,  mid-March,  and  mid-July),^  sometimes  two  (originally  held  at 
mid-November  and  mid-May),  according  to  a  dual  division  or  a  tri-partition 
of  the  year.  It  is  a  fact  of  great  weight  that  they  adhere  to  these  terms, 
even  when  one  or  two  of  them  disappear. 

The  only  foreign  impost  imposed  by  the  Church  upon  her  believers  was 
the  Peter's  penny.  It  was  by  a  perfectly  voluntary  act  that  the  payment 
of  it  was  fixed  at  St.  Peter's  mass.  Thus  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  ancient 
Germanic  institutions.  Its  name  Rome-feoh  on  British  ground  showed  the 
foreign  origin  and  purpose  of  it  only  too  clearly.  Keeping  this  in  mind, 
we  cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  ordinary  taxes  as  well  as  duties  like  light-scot 

^Grimm's  Wdrterbuch,  IV.,  i,  1262.  The  explanation  of  that  phrase,  given  there  by 
Rudolf  Hildebrand,  is  wrong.  The  time  from  one  St.  Martin's  goose  to  the  next  is 
properly  regarded  as  a  complete  year. 

^A  curious  interpretation  of  the  word  Trithinga,  which  shows  that  its  meaning  had 
been  forgotten  entirely,  is  given  by  Fleta  seu  Commentarius  Juris  Anglicani  sic  nuncupatus, 
sub  Edwardo  Re^e  primo  seu  circa  annos  abhinc  CCCXL.  ah  Anonymo  conscriptus,  atque  e 
Codice  veteri,  autore  ipso  aliquantulwn  recentiori,  nunc  primum  typis  editus,  Londini,  1647, 
p.  134,  Lib.  II.,  chap.  Ixi.,  §  23:  "  Ue  tritingis,  sciendum  quod  aliae  potestates  erant 
super  wapentakia  quae  tritinga  dicebantur,  eo  quod  erat  tertia  pars  provinciae ;  quia  vero 
super  eos  dominabantur,  trithingreves  vocabantur,  quibus  differebantur  causae  quae  non  in 
wapentakes  poterint  diffiniri  in  Schiram,  sicque  quod  Anglici  vocant  hundredos,  jam,  per 
variationem  locorum  et  idiomatis,  wapentakia  appellantur,  et  tria,  vel  quatuor,  vel  plura 
hundredi  solebant  Trithinga  vocari ;  et  quod  in  Trithingis  non  potuit  diffiniri,  in  Schiram 
id  est,  in  comitatum  differebatur  terminandum :  modernis  autem  temporibus  pro  uno 
eodemque  habentur  apud  homines  hundredi,  wakentakia,  et  Trithinga." 


UNIVERSITY 

Of 

MARTINMAS,    AND  THE  TRI-PARTITION  OF  THE  YEAR  43 

had  to  be  paid  three  times  a  year,  though  their  exact  terms  vary  a  little  in 
the  several  districts.  Under  King  Ethelred  (991-10 16)  plough-alms  were 
to  be  paid  xv.  days  after  Easter,  and  a  tithe  of  young  by  Pentecost,  and 
of  earth  fruits  by  All-hallows'  mass  (and  Rome-feoh  by  St.  Peter's 
mass),  and  light-scot  thrice  in  the  year,^  one  of  the  days  of  payment  for 
them  being  Candlemas.^ 

In  the  Rectitudo  Ancillae^  mid-Lent  is  named  as  the  second  of  the  three 
terms  of  the  year,  the  term  used  being  to  losngten-sufle  and  ad  quadragesi- 

^Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  306:  "xi.  And  gelaeste  man  Codes  gerihta  georne 
EEghwylce  geare.  that  is.  sulh-selmessan  xv.  niht  on  ufan  Eastran.  and  geogodhe  teodhunge 
be  Pentecosten.  and  eordh-wsestma  be  Ealra  Halgena  mgessan.  and  Rom-feoh  be  Petres 
msessan.  and  le6ht-gescot  thriwa  on  geare";  and  Ibid.,  I.,  p.  318,  in  the  resolutions 
passed  at  the  Council  of  Enham  :  "xvi.  And  gelaeste  man  Codes  gerihta.  s^hwilce 
geare  rihtlice  georne.  that  is.  sulh-aslmessan  huru  XX.  niht  ofer  Eastron :  xvii.  And 
ge6godhe  teodhunge  be  Pentecosten.  and  eordh-waestma  be  Ealra  Halgena  msessan : 
xviii.  And  Rom-fe6h  be  Petres  msessan.  and  ciric-sceat  t6  Martinus  msessan :  xix. 
And  leoht-gescot  thriwa  on  geare";  Ibid.,  I.,  338,  under  King  Ethelred:  "  iv.  Et 
praecipimus,  ut  omnis  homo,  super  dilectionem  Dei  et  omnium  sanctorum,  det  cyricsceattum 
et  rectam  decimam  suam,  sicut  in  diebus  antecessorum  nostrorum  stetit,  quando  melius 
stetit ;  hoc  est,  sicut  aratrum  peragrabit  decimam  acram. " 

"^Ibid.,  I.,  p.  342  (also  under  King  Ethelred):  "ix.  And  si  selc  geogudhe  teodhung 
gelsest  be  Pentecosten  be  wite.  and  eordh-wsestma  be  emnihte.  oththe  huru  be  Ealra 
Halgena  msessan."  {Here  the  equinox  was  probably  substituted  for  the  older  All-Hallows 
term.)  "x.  And  Rom-fe6h  gelaeste  man  seghwilce  geare  be  Petres  maessan.  and  sethe 
that  nelle  gelaestan  sylle  thar-t6-eacan.  xxx.  peninga.  and  gilde  tham  cyninge  cxx. 
scillingas.  xi.  And  ciric-sceat  gelaeste  man  be  Martinus-maessan.  and  sethe  that  ne 
gelaeste  for  gilde  hine  mid  twelffealdan.  and  tham  cyninge  cxx.  scillingas.  xii.  Sulh- 
aelmessan  gebyredh  that  man  gelaeste  be  wite  aeghwilce  geare.  thonne  XV.  niht  beodh 
agan  ofer  Easter-tid.  and  leoht-gescot  gelaeste  man  to  Candel-maessan.  d6  oftor  sethe 
wille."  The  same  is  ordained  in  the  Laws  of  King  Cnut,  1017-1042  (Ibid.  I.,  366  : 
"  viii.  And  gelaest  man  Codes  gerihta  aeghwylce  geare  rihtlice  georne.  that  is.  sulh- 
selmesse  huru  fiftene  niht  ofer  Eastran.  and  geogudhe  teodhunge  be  Pentecosten.  and 
eordh-waestma  be  Ealra  Halgena  maessan.  ix.  De  Nummo  Romano.  And  Rom-fe6h 
be  Petres  maessan.  x.  De  Primitiis  Seminum.  And  cyric-sceat  to  Martines  maessan. 
xii.  De  Pecunia  Pro  Lucernis.  And  leoht-gesceot.  thrtwa  on  geare.  aerest  on  Easter- 
aefen  healf-penig-wurdh  wexes  aet  aelcere  hide,  and  eft  on  Ealra  Halgena  maessan  eall 
swa  mycel.  and  eft  to  thaem  Sanctan  Mariam  claensunge  eal  swa"  (Feb.  2);  Ibid.,  I., 
434-35  :  "  Et  det  suum  cyric-sceatum  in  festo  Sancti  Martini  (and  sylle  his  cyric-sceat  to 
Martinus  maessan  "),  {Rectitudines  Singularum  Personarum). 

'Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  436-7. 


44 


YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 


malem  convictum.  The  fourteenth  century  Rhenish  Urbary  of  St.  Victor, 
Xanten,!  gives  St.  Gertrudis  Day  (March  17)  as  the  spring  term,  whilst 
Tirol  documents  of  the  fifteenth  century  call  it  simply  mitte  merzenf  whilst, 
two  centuries  later,^  summer  was  reckoned  to  begin  on  April  23,*  the 
beginning  of  winter  being  in  both  cases  Martinmas.  In  Flanders  St. 
Gertrudis  Day  (March  17)  is  called  Sommer  tag/^  Just  as  the  mid-May  term, 
which  halved  the  year  beginning  at  Martinmas,  was  easily  replaced  by  the 
Rogation  Days,  and  afterwards  by  Pentecost,  so  the  nearness  of  the  Christian 
festival  of  Easter  could  scarcely  fail  to  become  detrimental  to  a  mid-Lent 
term,  or  rather  to  a  mid-March  term.  The  earliest  date  on  which  Easter 
could  fall  was  March  22,  a  date  only  a  week  distant  from  March  15. 
Grimm  has  shown  ^  that  the  three  old  Germanic  offering-tides  coincided 
with  the  Thing  tides,  nay,  represented  one  side  of  them.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  autumn  Thing  and  the  spring  Thing  were  the  most  important, 
while  the  summer  Thing  could  not  be  so  significant,  for  the  very  simple 
reason  that,  in  time  of  war,  almost  all  men  able  to  bear  arms  were  away. 
A  festival  about  the  middle  of  July  I  should  be  the  last  to  deny  to  Ger- 
manics, Slavs,  and  Celts,  but  that  it  had  any  early  relation  to  a  summer 
solstice  which  fell  about  three  weeks  earlier  must  be  most  emphatically 
gainsaid.  It  is  true  the  festivals  which  appear  in  medieval  poetry  are 
almost  all  celebrated  either  at  Pentecost  or  ze  einer  sunnenwenden  (about 
June  24).  But  to  that  date  the  festival  of  the  beginning  of  late  summer  at 
mid-July  had  been  shifted  in  the  tenth  or  eleventh  century,  whilst  the 
legal  term  in  many  places  remained  where  it  had  been.  As  the  expression 
ze  einer  sunnenwenden  is  foreign,  so  the  date  itself  is  foreign.  Were  it 
otherwise,  and  had  June  24  been  an  old  Germanic  date  (so  that  the  other 
two  had  originally  fallen  on  October  24  and  February  24),  it  would  be 
quite  inexplicable  how  the  term  could  have  moved  away  from  it  to  mid-July, 
which  was  equally  out  of  keeping  with  October  i,  with  Christmas,  and  with 

^  State- Archive,  Diisseldorf,  under  "  Stift  Xanten,"  R.  No.  8%  leaf  8*. 

^Zingerle,  Tiroler  Weistumer,  IV.,  p.  33,  A.D.  1431,  at  Partschins. 

^A.D.  1630,  at  Burgeis.  ^Zingerle,   Tiroler  Weistiimer,  III.,  p.  65. 

"Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Miitelalters,  I.,   178. 

^Deutsche  Rechtsaltertumer,  821  ss.  245,  745. 


MARTINMAS,   AND   THE   TRI-PARTITION   OF   THE   YEAR  45 

Easter.  Besides,  there  is  no  trace  of  sun-worship  whatever  in  Germanic 
religion, 1  and  in  the  Scandinavian  North  the  existence  of  a  midsummer 
Thing  is  as  well  vouched  as  any  fact  of  Old  Norse  history,  without  it  showing 
the  slightest  trace  of  a  relation  to  a  sun-cult.  Quite  in  accordance  with 
the  fact  that  the  Scandinavian  year  began  between  October  9  and  14,  and 
had  a  Gbiblbt  between  February  9  and  14,  the  summer  Thing  was  held 
between  June  9  and  14.  In  Germany,  where  the  terms  of  both  the 
beginning  of  winter  and  of  the  beginning  of  early  summer  fell  one  month 
later,  the  festival  at  the  beginning  of  later  summer  must  have  been  held 
about  July  15.  In  the  Rhenish  Urbary  of  St.  Victor,  Xanten,^  July  12 
(St.  Margaret's  day)  was  marked,  not  only  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  season, 
but  even  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  year.  At  other  places  July  1 7  appears 
as  the  joyous  day.  So  in  Swabia  children  and  gilds  received  gifts — the 
latter  of  wine.^  It  is  also  the  day  of  old  bonfires  in  Villingen,  Swabia."* 
In  the  Netherlands  the  old  season  of  four  months,  from  March  15  to 
July  15,  was  till  very  late  called  May,^  just  as  in  Germany  a  Roman  quarter 
of  a  year  was  taken  as  identical  with  spring,  and  counted  from  February  22 
to  May  25.^  That  that  popular  summer  festival  had  originally  nothing  to 
do  with  a  solstice  appears  from  the  fact  that  even  July  25  was  called  te 
midzomer  (1419)  or  na  midden-somere  (1351).^  In  1461  it  was  still  taken 
as  corresponding  to  Christmas,  and  was  the  occasion  of  a  local  fair  like  that 
festival.^  It  was  still  regarded  also  as  one  summer  term  in  the  Tirol  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  divided  the  time  of  pasture  into  two  halves,  and  he 
who,  at  Laatsch,  Tirol,  in  1546,  bought  oxen  after  that  term,  and  put  them 


^  Holtzmann,  Germanische  AltertUmer,  Leipzig,  1873,  PP-  127  and  173;  Grimm, 
Deutsche  Mythologie,  591. 

2  State-Archive,  Dusseldorf,  under  *'  Stifc  Xanten,"  R.  No.  8%  leaf  8*. 

^Birlinger,  Aus  Schwaben,  H.,  p.   1 18. 

*Ibid.;  and  Mone,  Quellensammhmg,  II.,  88".  ~" 

'  Tijdschrift  v.  nederl.  Taalk,  IX.,  134  ;  Grotefend,  Zeiirecknung,  I.,  1 16. 

^  Baltische  Studien,  XIX.,  49:  "de  Mey  beginnet  in  sunte  Peters  daghe,  de  summer 
in  sunte  Urbans  daghe"  (Grotefend,  Zeiirecknung,  I.,  116). 

■^Grotefend,  Zeiirecknung,  I.,  87. 

^  Annalen  des  historischen  Vereins  fiir  den  Niederrkein,  Vol.  LXV.,  p.  42  (Town-Archive 
of  Kempen,  Docs.  Nos.  367  and  387).     It  there  appears  as  St.  Jacob's  day. 


46  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

on  the  common  pasture  ground  of  the  community,  had  to  pay  to  the 
community  four  Bernese  pounds  for  each  pair,^  whilst,  a  century  later  (in 
1647),  the  term  had  been  shifted  to  St.  Vitus  Day,  June  15.2  In  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Rectitiido  Ancillae^  this  term  is  called  on  sumera  or  in  aestate  (an 
expression  corresponding  to  Old  Icelandic  at  sumri,  i.e.,  June  9  to  14), 
meaning  a  day  about  mid-July.  When  it  had  been  shifted  to  June  24,  it 
was  called  midsummer.  Midsummer  was  a  later  Anglo-Saxon  term  recognized 
by  law  :  "  A  sheep  shall  go  with  its  fleece  until  Midsummer,  or  let  the  fleece 
be  paid  for  with  two  pence,"  is  a  doom  in  King  Ine's  Laws.*  But 
occasionally  the  regular  law  courts  and  assemblies  were  held  still  later. 
More  than  once  the  day  of  the  beheading  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  (August  29) 
is  fixed  as  the  term  at  which  the  bishops  and  reeves  are  to  adjudge  the 
king's  commands  to  all  whom  it  behoveth.^ 

The  tri-partition  of  the  year — Martinmas,  mid-March,  mid-July — was,  till 
late  in  the  Middle  Ages,  more  than  an  artificial  division  of  the  year  carried 
on  by  tradition  without  apparent  reason.  It  was  deeply  rooted  in  economic 
life,  and  in  conditions  affecting  pasture  and  agriculture.  In  connection  with 
the  keeping  of  domestic  animals,  as  well  as  with  the  ploughing  of  the  fields, 
traces  of  an  old  tri-partition  have  come  down  to  us.  The  anonymous  Anglo- 
French  Seneschaucie  of  the  thirteenth  century*'  ordains :  "The  bailiff"  ought, 
after  St.  John's  Day,  to  cause  all  the  old  and  feeble  oxen  with  bad  teeth 
to  be  drafted  out,  and  all  the  old  cows,  and  the  weak  and  the  barren,  and 
the  young  avers  that  will  not  grow  to  good,  and  put  them  in  good  pasture 
to  fatten,  so  the  worst  shall  then  be  worth  a  better.  And  he  ought,  three 
times  a  year,  to  cause  all  the  sheep  in  his  charge  to  be  inspected  by  men 
who  know  their  business — that  is,  to  wit,  after  Easter,  because  of  the  disease 
of  May,  and  later,  for  then  sheep  die  and  perish  by  the  disease;  and  all 


^Zingerle,  Tiroler  Weistiimer,  Vol.  III.,  p.  103. 

2  In  the  neighbouring  community  of  Schleiss  (Zingerle,  Tiroler  Weistiimer,  Vol.  III.,  p.  89). 
^Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  436-7. 

*  Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  146:  "odh  midne  sumor." 

'^  Laws  of  King  Athelstan,  I.,  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  194:  "ond  thses  sie  to  thsem 
dseg  thser  beheafdunges  Seint  lohannes  thaes  fulhteres." 

^Ed.  by  Elizabeth  Lamond  in  Walter  of  Henley's  Husbandry,  London,  1890,  p.  97. 


MARTINMAS,   AND   THE   TRI-PARTITION   OF   THE   YEAR  47 

that  are  found  so,  by  the  sure  proof  of  killing  two  or  three  of  the  best, 
and  as  many  of  the  middling,  and  as  many  of  the  worst,  or  by  proof  of  the 
eye  or  of  the  wool,  which  separates  from  the  skin,  let  them  be  sold  with 
all  the  wool.  And  again,  let  all  the  old  and  weak  be  drafted  out  before 
Lammas,  and  let  them  be  put  in  good  pasture  to  fatten,  and  when  the  best 
have  presently  mended  and  are  fat,  let  them  be  sold  to  the  butchers;  so 
can  one  do  well,  for  mutton  flesh  is  more  sought  after  and  sold  then  than 
after  August;  and  let  all  the  rest  of  the  draft  beasts  which  cannot  be  sold  then 
be  sold  before  Martinmas.  And  the  third  time,  at  Michaelmas,  let  all  the 
sheep  be  drafted  out."^  In  the  same  century  elsewhere  the  day  of  testing  the 
health  of  wethers  was  October  28.  Walter  of  Henley,  in  his  Husbandry^ 
laid  it  down  that  two  of  the  best  wethers,  two  of  the  middling,  and  two  of 
the  worst  should  be  killed  on  that  day.  If  they  were  found  not  to  be  sound, 
a  part  was  to  be  sold  by  true  men  for  good  security,  until  Hockday 
(Thursday  after  Easter),  and  then  replaced.^  Almost  the  same  way  of 
denoting  a  third  of  a  year  is  found  in  connection  with  sheep-keeping ;  from 
Martinmas  to  Pasch  sheep  were  to  spend  their  nights  under  shelter.^ 

In  agricultural  life  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  three  terms 
were  known  in  low  Latinity  as  Hibernagium,  Tratmesium,  and  Warectum. 
They  then  continued  to  determine  the  ploughing  times,  which  seem  to  have 
occupied  the  latter  half  of  each  of  the  old  three  seasons.'* 


^"E  tote  le  remeignant  de  creim  ke  ne  put  estre  uendu  adonkes  seit  vendu  deuant  la 
seint  martin." 

2  Walter  of  Henley's  Husbandry,  ed.  by  Elizabeth  Lamond,  London,  1890,  p.  33 :  "A 
la  seynt  symon  e  seyn  lude  facet  tuer  deus  de  meylurs  e  deus  de  myuueyns  e  deus  de 
pyres  e  si  vos  trouet  ke  eus  ne  seyent  mye  seyens  fetes  vendre  vne  partye  a  lele  genz  par 
bone  surte  iekes  a  la  hokeday  e  done  fetes  releuer  autres." 

^ Fleta  seu  Commetitarius  Juris  Anglicani,  London,  1647,  p.  167,  Lib.  IL,  chap.  Ixxix., 
§  7  :  "  Inter  festa  autem  sancti  Martini  et  Paschae,  infra  domum  oves  expedit  noctanter 
custodire,  nisi  terra  sicca  fuerit,  ovileque  bene  reparatum,  tempusque  serenum." 

*  Registrum  sive  Liber  Irrotularius  et  Consuetudinarius  Prioratus  Beatae  Mariae 
Wigorniensis :  with  an  Introduction,  Notes,  and  Illustrations  by  William  Hale  Hale, 
Londini,  Sumptibus  Societatis  Camdensis,  1865 ;  Redditus  Prioratus  Wigomiae  Anno 
Incarnationis  Domini  MCCXL.,  p.  14'':  "  Praeterea  arabit  ad  yvemagium,  tramesium,  et  ad 
warrectum,  per  unum  diem,  excepto  opere,  et  vocatur  *  benherthe.' "  Ibid.,  p.  14'': 
"Praeterea  arabit  et  herciabit    I.  die  ad  yvemagium  ;  et  Prior  inveniet  semen,  et  si  necesse 


48  YULE  AND  CPIRISTMAS 

fuerit  quaelibet  herciabit  pro  opere,  donee  perventum  fuerit  ad  carueas,  praeterea  arabit  uno 
die  ad  tramesium,  et  uno  die  warectabit,"  etc.,  ut  supra.  Ibid.,  p.  iS*" :  "Nova  assisa  de 
vilenagio  de  Mora.  In  hoc  manerio  sunt  xxvil.  dimidiae  virgatae  Quarum  quaelibet  ad 
firmam  posita  reddit  ad  quemlibet  terminum  ll°^  solidos  et  in  Purificatione  I  quarter. 
avenae.  Quaelibet  etiam  debet  x'^''"^  summagia  apud  Wygorniam  et  terram  arare  sicut  sibi 
arat ;  scilicet  semel  ad  yvernagium  et  ad  tratmesium  et  ad  warectum  et  debent  sarclare  et 
metere  et  intassare  una  cum  cottariorum  operibus  et  aliorum  in  autumpno  totum  bladum  de 
dominico,  et  debent  Thac  et  Thol  et  pannagium  et  gersummationem  prolis  et  hujusmodi." 
Ibid.,  p.  \<^ '■  "  Et  dat  auxilium,  scilicet  xviil.  denarios  Et  in  Purificatione  dimidiam 
quarterium  avenae  et  facit  III"  aniras  scilicet  ad  yvernagium  ad  tratmesium  et  ad  Warectum 
et  iii^=   Benrip." 


CHAPTER  V. 

MARTINMAS,  AND  THE  DUAL  DIVISION  OF  THE  YEAR. 

In  Germany  mid-May  and  Martinmas  appear  as  the  two  half-yearly  terms 
as  late  as  1525.  In  that  year  the  peasants  of  his  district  reproached  the  Count 
of  Fiirstenberg  for  having  increased  the  taxes,  the  same  being  then  raised 
twice  a  year  as  May  tax  and  autumn  tax.  In  reality  these  taxes  had,  as  is 
shown  by  the  Fiirstenberg  Urbaria,  been  raised  almost  regularly  through 
the  whole  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  holders  petitioned  the  Count  to 
reduce  these  two  taxes  to  one,  which  should  be  paid  at  Martinmas.^  In 
the  Exchequer  Rolls  of  Scotland  ^  almost  all  accounts  of  provosts  of  burghs  are 
dated  Whitsunday  and  Martinmas,  while  the  dates  of  the  custumars'  accounts 
vary  considerably.  Even  accounts  "for  four  years  ending  Martinmas,  1331  " 
occur.  Martinmas  appears  considerably  oftener  than  Whitsunday,  thus 
being  shown  to  have  been  the  more  important  term,  at  which  not  only 
half  a  year  but  a  whole  year  ended.  In  the  second  volume,  which  covers 
the  years  1359  to  1379,  Whitsunday  and  Martinmas  are  also  the  two  main 
terms  occurring  in  accounts.^ 

^  The  application  of  the  small-holders  is  printed  by  Baumann,  Akten  zur  Geschichte  des 
deutschen  Baiiernkrieges  aus  Obersckioaben,  Freiburg  i.  B.,  1877,  ^"^^  is  commented  upon 
by  Hossler,  Zur  Entstehungsgeschichte  des  Bauernkrieges  in  Siidwestdeutschlattd,  Leipzig 
Dissertation,  1895,  p.  49. 

^  Rotuli  Scaccarii  Regum  Scotortan,  edited  by  John  Stuart  and  George  Burnett,  Vol.  I. , 
1 264- 1 359,  Edinburgh,  1878. 

^On  pages  viii.,  x.,  xi.,  xii.,  xv.,  xvii.  to  xx.,  xxiii.  to  xxv.,  long  lists  of  accounts, 
beginning  and  ending  at  those  days,  are  enumerated,  just  as  in  the  contents  of  Vol.  III., 

D 


5° 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


In  England  this  state  of  things  was  codified  by  Edward  the  Confessor 
( 1 042-1 066),  perhaps  with  a  slight  alteration  of  the  existing  usage.  Whilst 
mid-May  or  Rogation  Days  as  a  rule  appear  as  the  old  legal  term,  Edward 
ordained  that  the  great  assembly  of  his  people  was  to  take  place  on  May  i.^ 
As  regards  the  Franks^  it  has  been  finally  proved  that  their  great  annual 
assembly  took  place  in  the  middle  of  May.  Can  the  name  of  this  assembly 
Campus  Martins  (to  be  translated  May-field)  suggest  that  previously,  when 
the  tri-partition  prevailed  and  there  were  three  such  meetings,  the  most 
important  of  them  was  held  in  the  middle  of  March,  and  thus  has  nothing 
to  do  with  Afars  =  Ziu}  This  institution  extended  all  over  German  soil  as  far 
as  to  the  Italian  frontier.  As  late  as  1281  the  community  of  Fleims,  in  the 
secular  territory  of  Trient,  reserved  to  itself  the  right  of  keeping  two  placita — 
the  one  in  May  and  the  other  in  November.^  It  took  a  very  long  time  to  uproot 
this  institution,  and  replace  it  by  meetings  held  according  to  Roman  quarters 
of  years  and  Christian  high  festivals. 

Legal  institutions  were  not  the  only  form  in  which  the  Germanic  terms 
survived.  Very  early  the  Christian  Church  in  Gaul  was  compelled  to  make 
considerable  concessions  to  the  Germanic  mode  of  dividing  the  year,  which, 

which  covers  the  time  from  1379-1406.  The  most  frequent  phrases  of  Vol.  II.  are:  "de 
termino  heati  Martini  ultimo  preterito"  (p.  475);  "de  termino  Sancti  Martini"  (p.  621  twice; 
p.  281) ;  "de  duobus  terminis  huius  compoti,  videlicet  Pentecostes  et  Sancti  Martini"  (pp. 
72,  73) ;  "  de  termino  Pentecostes  ultimo  preterito  "  (pp.  72,  73) ;  "  de  terminis  Pentecostes 
et  Sancti  Martini"  (pp.  72,  73  twice);  "de  eodem  termino  Pentecostes"  (pp.  72,  73  twice). 

^ In  capite  Calendarum  Maji,  Hampson,  II.,  94,  Grotefend,  Zeitrechntmg,  I.,  20*.  The 
spring  term  appearing  probably  with  most  frequency  in  other  connections  is  the  Rogation 
Days.  "And  we  ordain  that  every  'burh'  be  repaired  xiv.  days  over  Rogation  Days." 
Laws  of  King  Athelstan,  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  206,  No.  13:  "xilll.  niht  ofer 
Gang-dagas."  "And  every  man  that  will  may  make  'bot'  for  every  theft  with  the 
accuser,  without  any  kind  of  '  wite,'  until  Rogation  days ;  and  be  it  after  that  as  it  was 
before."     Ibid.,  p.  222,  Laws  of  King  Athelstan,  iii.  :  "odh  Gong-dagas." 

^  H.  L.  Ahrens,  Uber  Namen  und  Zeit  des  campus  Martins  der  alien  Franken,  Hannover, 
1872. 

'^Pontes  Keriwi  Austriacarum,  Second  Division,  Diplomata,  Vol.  V.,  No.  212,  p.  417: 
"  Allegando,  quod  ipsi  homines  et  comniunitas  de  Flemmis  sicut  de  jure  et  ex  antiquo  est 
observatum,  nisi  bis  in  anno  quolibet  non  debeant  conveniri  in  foro  temporali  et  juri  parere 
in  civilibus  et  sub  judicio  esse,  videlicet  ad  placitum  in  festo  s.  Martini  et  in  placito 
in  Majo.  .  .  ." 


MARTINMAS,  AND  THE   DUAL  DIVISION   OF  THE  YEAR  51 

about  the  year  500  a.d.,  found  expression  in  processions  and  litanies  at 
the  two  terms  of  mid-May  and  mid-November.  Two  closely  corresponding^ 
Church  celebrations  were  held  at  these  tides,  so  that  their  relationship 
cannot  fail  to  appear.  In  511  a.d.  the  Council  of  Orleans  instituted  the 
so-called  Rogations  before  the  Ascension  day,*  and  decreed  a  three  days' 
liberation  from  all  work  for  servants  of  both  sexes.  Because  of  a  suspicion 
that  the  clergy  might  try  to  ignore  this  new  institution,  as  too  great  a 
concession  to  the  Germanic  field  processions  about  mid-May,  a  special 
canon  was  added,  threatening  them  with  punishment  in  case  of  non-com- 
pliance with  the  command  of  the  Church.  Bye  and  bye  some  change  took 
place  in  the  date  of  the  praying  processions  round  the  fields,  further 
concessions  being  made  to  the  Germanic  celebration,  or  uoba,  in  the 
corresponding  tide  of  the  year  in  November.  The  Synod  of  Gerunda  of  June  8, 
517,  at  which  six  bishops  and  one  archbishop  were  present,  ordained  in 
its  second  and  third  canons  that  litanies  and  fasts  should  be  held  in  the 
weeks  subsequent  to  Pentecost  and  to  the  Calends  of  November  respectively,^ 
so  that  the  latter  were  held  between  November  i  and  November  9.  That 
this  was  a  permanent  institution  appears  from  Canon  VI.  of  the  second 
Synod  of  Lyon  in  567,^  from  which  we  also  learn  that,  between  517  and 

^Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  II.,  col.  1011-12;  Concilium  Aurelianense,  I., 
A.D.  511,  Canon  xxvii.  :  "  Rogationes,  id  est,  litanias  ante  Ascensionem  Domini  ab  omnibus 
ecclesiis  placuit  celebrari ;  ita  ut  pi-aemissum  triduanum  jejunium  in  Dominicae  Ascensionis 
festivitate  solvatur :  per  quod  triduum  ser\i  et  ancillae  ab  omni  opere  relaxentur,  quo 
magis  plebs  universa  conveniat:  quo  triduo  omnes  abstineant,  et  quadragesimalibus  cibis 
utanlur."  Canon  xxviii.  :  "Clerici  vero  qui  ad  hoc  opus  sanctum  adesse  contempserint, 
secundum  arbitrium  episcopi  ecclesiae  suscipiant  disciplinam." 

^Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  II.,  col.  1043;  Concilium  Gerundense,  A.D.  517,  ii. : 
"De  litania,  ut  expleta  solemnitate  Pentecostes,  sequens  septimana,  a  quinta  feria  usque 
in  sabbatum,  per  hoc  triduum  abstinentia  celebretur.  iii.  Item  secundae  litaniae  faciendae 
sunt  Kalendis  Novembris,  ea  tamen  conditione  servata,  ut  si  iisdem  diebus  Dominica 
intercesserit,  in  alia  hebdomada,  secundum  prions  abstinentiae  observantiam,  a  quinta 
feria  incipiantur,  et  in  sabbato  vespere  missi  facta  finiantur.  Quibus  tamen  diebus  a 
carnibus  et  a  vino  abstinendum  decrevimus." 

^Acta  Conciliorum,  Vol.  III.,  col.  355;  Concilium  Lugdunense,  II.,  A.D.  567,  \A.'.  "Placuit 
enim  universis  fratribus,  ut  in  prima  hebdomada  noni  mensis,  hoc  est,  ante  diem  Dominicam, 
quae  prima  in  ipso  mense  illuxerit,  litaniae,  sicut  ante  Ascensionem  Domini  sancti  patres 
fieri  decreverunt,  deinceps  ab  omnibus  ecclesiis,  seu  parochiis  celebrentur. " 


52  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

567  A.D.,  the  Church  had  returned  to  the  older  date  of  the  spring  litany, 
to  the  days  preceding  Ascension  day,  which  apparently  almost  coincided 
with  the  ancient  Germanic  May  term.  The  autumn  litany  was  then  ordained 
to  be  held  before  November  7 — which  implied  almost  no  alteration.^  In 
517  there  existed  neither  a  forty  days'  fasting-tide  from  Martinmas  to 
Christmas  nor  even  Martinmas  itself.  Martin  of  Tours  had  died  in  401,  but 
he  was  not  made  St.  Martin  till  long  after.  His  feast  appears  first  in  a  Sacra- 
mentarium  by  Pope  Gelasius  I.  (492-496),  and  in  the  Liber  Sacramentorum 
of  Gregory  the  Great  (590-604)  ;2  but  it  was  only  Pope  Martin  I. 
(649-654)  who  made  it  a  great  Church  festival.^  So  the  excuse  is  not 
possible  that  the  praying  procession  was  instituted  as  a  preparation  for  St. 
Martinmas,  or  the  fasting-tide  beginning  with  it,  as  has  been  suggested 
by  a  man  so  ingenious  as  Heino  Pfannenschmid.^  For,  according  to  his 
own  words,  the  first  certain  traces  of  an  Advent-tide  are  found  in  some 
homilies,^  probably  written  by  Caesarius  of  Aries,  who  died  in  542.  Yet 
even  there  it  is  only  the  question  of  a  general  preparation  for  Christmas, 
and  by  no  means  of  a  prevailing  custom  or  an  ecclesiastical  statute.*' 
According  to  Gregory  of  Tours, '^  who  died  in  595,  it  was  Bishop  Perpetuus 
of  Tours  (who  died  as  Bishop  of  Toulouse  in  506)  who  ordained  for  his 
diocese  a  fast  of  three  days  a  week,  from  St.  Martin's  burial  day  till 
Christmas.^  From  the  bishopric  of  Tours  the  habit  of  keeping  an  Advent- 
tide  seems  then  to  have  spread  over  the  whole  territory  of  the  Church. 

First  the  new  fast-tide  referred  to  monks  only.  In  the  second  Synod  of 
Tours  in  567  (where  nine  bishops  were  gathered,  and  among  them  those 
of  Tours,  Rouen,  and  Paris),  with  the  consent  of  King  Charibert,  a  daily 

^  About  no7ius  mens  =  Nov  ember,  comp.  Eccard,  Co?nmenlarius  de  Rebus  Franciae, 
I.,  131. 

"^  Pfannenschmid,   Gennanische  Erntefeste,  p.  464. 

3  Wandalbert,  Martyrologium  in  d' Archery,  Specilegium  veterum  Scriptorum,  T.  II.; 
Pfannenschmid,  Ibid.,  p.  465. 

^  Gennanische  Erntefeste,  p.   515. 

^  In  Appendix  Augustianus,  Tom.  V.    Operum  St.  Atigustini,  nova  edit..  No.  1 15  et  1 16. 

SBinterim,  Denkwurdigkeiten,  V.,  L,   164.         ''Lib.  X.,  vYwA,  chap.  xxxi. 

8" A  depositione  domini  Martini  usque  ad  Natale  domini." 


MARTINMAS,  AND  THE  DUAL  DIVISION  OF  THE  YEAR  53 

fast  was  decreed  for  monks  during  December  up  till  Christmas  day,  a 
period  bye  and  bye  extended  to  forty  days,  and  made  applicable  to  laymen 
also.  The  first  testimony  as  to  a  general  celebration  of  an  Advent-tide 
is  an  ordinance  on  fasting  for  laymen  given  by  the  first  Synod  of  Macon, 
which  was  called  in  581  by  the  Frankish  king,  Guntram,  and  was  attended 
by  twenty-one  bishops  from  various  provinces  of  the  Church,  among  others 
by  the  bishops  of  Lyon,  Vienne,  Sens,  and  Bourges.  Its  Canon  IX.  runs  as 
follows  :  "  From  St.  Martin's  day  till  Christmas  every  Monday,  Wednesday, 
and  Friday  is  to  be  a  day  of  fast."^  At  the  end  of  the  sixth  century 
Rome  took  over  that  forty-day  fast-tide  preceding  Christmas,  and  in  the 
seventh  century  it  was  kept  all  over  Italy,  Spain,  and  England.  In 
Germany  it  was  ordained  by  the  Synods  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  836,  and  at 
Erfurt  in  932.  The  period  of  fast  as  well  as  its  strictness  varied,  however, 
considerably.  Finally,  the  whole  fortnight  preceding  Christmas  was  declared 
a  continuous  fast-tide,  and  the  week  preceding  Christmas  a  time  void  of 
any  legal  process.  In  1022  it  was  even  decreed  that  from  the  beginning 
of  Advent  till  Epiphany  nobody  was  to  marry.^ 

In  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  the  Calends  of  November 
received  a  new  ecclesiastical  significance.  About  the  year  608  the 
Pantheon  of  Rome,  which  until  then  had  been  devoted  to  the  service  of 
all  Roman  gods,  was  by  Boniface  IV.  dedicated  in  honour  of  "the  holy 
Mother  of  God,  and  of  all  Saints;"  and  it  was  ordained  that  a  com- 
memoration of  them  should  be  observed  during  the  Kalends  of  November.^ 
This  feast  was  received  through  all  Gaul  by  the  authority  of  the  Emperor, 
Louis  the  Pious  (a.d.  835).*  In  694  the  seventeenth  Council  of  Toledo 
extended  the  litanies,  which  so  far  had  been  held  twice  a  year — in  May 

'  "  Ut  a  feria  sancti  Martini  usque  ad  Natale  Domini,  secunda,  quarta,  et  sexta  sabbali 
jejunetur,  et  sacrificia  quadragesimali  debeant  ordine  celebrari "  {Ada  Condliorum,  Parisiis, 
1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  451). 

'^  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Ertitefeste,  p.  514,  Hefele,  IV..  565,  564,  640. 

'  Alcuin,  De  Divitto  Officio. 

* Sigeberti  Gemblacensis,  Chronicon  ab  antio  381  ad  1113,  under  a.d.  835:  "Monente 
Gregorio  papa  et  omnibus  episcopis  assentientibus  Ludouicus  imperator  statuit  ut  in  Gallia 
et  Germania  festiuitas  omnium  sanctorum  in  Calen.  Nouemb.  celebraretur,  quam  Romani 
ex  instituto  Bonifacij  papae  celebrant." 


54 


YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 


and  in  November — over  the  whole  twelve  months  of  the  year,  at  the  same 
time  specifying  the  reasons  for  the  change.^ 

If  proof  were  requisite  that  the  Rogation  Days  took  the  place  of  a  most 
important  Germanic  festival,  it  would  be  supplied  by  the  descriptfon  of 
their  celebration  given  by  the  Council  of  Cloveshou,  II.,  a.d.  747,  in  the 
canons  of  which  games,  horseraces,  and  extensive  dinners  were  named  as 
the  characteristics  of  that  tide.^  In  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  these 
regulations  were  more  than  once  repeated  by  Councils  and  Synods.^ 


^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1815,  Concilium  Toletanicm,'XN\\., 
vi.  :  "  Quamquam  priscorum  patrum  institutio,  per  totum  annum,  per  singulorum  mensium 
cursum,  litaniarum  vota  decreverit  persolvendum,  nee  tamen  specialiter  sanxerit  pro  quibus 
causis  idipsum  sit  peragendum  :  tamen,  quia  cooperante  humani  generis  adversario,  multa 
inolevit  oberrandi  consuetudo,  et  jurisjurandi  transgressio ;  ideo  secundum  evangelistam, 
qui  ait :  Vigilate  et  orate,  ne  intretis  in  tentationem  ;  in  commune  statuentes  decernimus, 
ut  deinceps  per  totum  annum,  in  cunctis  duodecim  mensibus,  per  universas  Hispaniae  et 
Galliarum  provincias,  pro  statu  ecclesiae  Dei,  pro  incolumitate  principis  nostri,  atque 
salvatione  populi,  et  indulgentia  totius  peccati,  et  a  cunctorum  fidelium  cordibus  expulsione 
diaboli,  exhomologeses  votis  gliscentibus  celebrentur  :  quatenus  dum  generalem  omnipotens 
Dominus  afflictionem  perspexerit,  et  delictis  omnibus  miseratus  indulgeat,  et  saevientis 
diaboli  incitamenta  ab  animis  omnium  procul  efficiat." 

"^ Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1956,  Co7tcilium  Cloveshoviae,  II., 
A.D.  747,  xvi.  :  "Sextodecimo  condixerunt  capitulo,  ut  litaniae,  id  est,  rogationes,  a  clero 
omnique  populo  his  diebus  cum  magna  reverentia  agantur  :  id  est,  die  septimo  Kalendarum 
Maiaium  [this  date  must  mean  May  7],  juxta  ritum  Romanae  ecclesiae :  quae  et  litania 
major  apud  earn  vocatur.  Et  item  quoque,  secundum  morem  priorum  nostrorum,  dies  ante 
ascensionem  Domini  in  coelos  cum  jejunio  usque  ad  horam  nonam,  et  missarum  celebratione 
venerentur  ;  non  admixtis  vanitatibus,  uti  mos  est  plurimis,  vel  negligentibus,  vel  imperitis  : 
id  est,  in  ludis,  et  equorum  cursibus,  et  epulis  majoribus :  sed  magis  cum  timore  et  tremore, 
signo  passionis  Christi,  nostraeque  aeternae  redemptionis,  et  reliquiis  sanctorum  ejus  coram 
portatis,  omnis  populus  genu  flectendo  divinam  pro  delictis  humiliter  exorat  indulgentiam." 

^ Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  IV.,  col.  1014-5,  Concilium  Moguntiacuin, 
A.D.  813,  xxxiii.  :  "  Placuit  nobis,  ut  litania  maior  observanda  sit  a  cunctis  Christianis 
diebus  tribus,  sicut  legendo  reperimus,  et  sicut  sancti  patres  nostri  instituerunt,  non  equitando, 
nee  pretiosis  vestibus  induti,  sed  discalceati,  cinere  et  cilicio  induti,  nisi  infirmitas  impedierit." 
Ibid.,  Vol.  IV.,  col.  1395,  Conciliutn  Aquisgratiense,  II.,  a.d.  836,  x.  :  ''Do  Litania 
quoque  maiore  atque  de  Rogationibus  ventilatum  est :  sed  communi  consensu  ab  omnibus 
electum  atque  decretum,  juxta  morem  Romanum,  vil.  Kalendas  Maii  illam  celebralionem, 
secundum  consuetudinem  nostrae  ecclesiae  non  omittendam."  Ibid.,  Vol.  V.,  col.  456, 
llerardi  Turonensis  Capitula,  A.D.  858,  xciv.  :  "  De  Letania  Romana  vil.  Kalendis  Maii, 
ut  rememoretur. "    xcv. :  "  De  diebus  Rogationum,  ut  reverenter  ac  studiose  absque  turpibus 


MARTINMAS,   AND   THE   DUAL  DIVISION   OF  THE   YEAR 


55 


Just  as  the  Church  sanctified  the  older  Germanic  celebration  of  mid-May 
and  raid-November  by  special  litanies,  so  it  took  over  the  meetings  wont 
to  be  held  at  those  terms.  In  578,  at  the  Synod  of  Auxerre,*  it  was  decreed 
that  every  year  priests  should  meet  at  mid-May  and  abbots  at  November  i. 
When  (in  589,  at  the  Council  of  Toledo)  it  was  resolved  that  the  Synods, 
instead  of  meeting  twice  a  year  (on  mid-May  and  November  i),  were  to 
meet  only  once,  November  i  was  fixed  for  that  meeting  ^ — a  date  observed 
for  more  than  a  century.^ 

Not  before  a.d.  755  were  these  terms  superseded  by  March  i  and 
October  i,*  but  even  after  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  the  annual 
meetings  of  the  priests  of  the  Church  were  held  in  the  beginning  of 
November.^     In  Great  Britain  the  Rogation  Days  were,  under  the  name  of 

jocis  et  verbis  celebrentur.  Ut  nullus  in  eis  prandia,  comessationes  diversasque  potiones 
per  diversa  loca  facere  praesumat."  Ibid.,  Vol.  VI.,  i.,  col.  606,  Concilium  Engilenheimense, 
A.D.  948,  vii.  :  "  Ut  litania  majore  jejunium,  sicut  in  Rogationibus  ante  Ascensionem 
Domini  exerceatur." 

^  Acta  Conciliorutn,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  444,  Syttodus  Autissiodorensis,  Canon 
vii.  :  '*  Ut  medio  Maio  omnes  presbyteri  ad  synodum  in  civitatem  veniant,  et  Kalendis 
Novembris  omnes  abbates  ad  concilium  conveniant." 

"^  Acta  Cottciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  482,  Concilium  Toletanutn,  III., 
A.D.  589,  xviii.  :  "  Praecipit  haec  sancta  et  veneranda  synodus,  ut  stante  priorum 
auctoritate  canonum,  quae  bis  in  anno  praecipit  congregari  concilia,  consulta  itineris 
longitudine,  et  paupertate  ecclesiarum  Hispaniae,  semel  in  anno  in  locum  quem 
metropolitanus  elegerit  episcopi  congregentur :  judices  vero  locorum,  vel  actores  fiscalium 
patrimoniorum,  ex  decreto  gloriosissimi  domini  nostri  simul  cum  sacerdotali  concilio, 
autumnali  tempore,  die  Kalendarum  Novembrium  in  unum  conveniant." 

^The  decree  was  repeated  at  another  Council  of  Toledo  in  681.  Acta  Conciliorum, 
Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1725,  Concilium  Toletanum,  XII.,  A.D.  681,  xii. :  "  Placuit 
huic  venerando  concilio,  ut  juxta  priorum  canonum  instituta,  episcopi  singularum 
provinciarum  annis  singulis  in  unaquaque  provincia  Kalendis  Novembribus  concilium 
celebraturi  conveniant.  Quisquis  autem  in  praedictis  Kalendis  Novembribus  pro 
celebratione  synodi  venire  distulerit,  excommunicationi  debitae  subjacebit." 

*^Acta  Cottciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1995,  Concilium  Veronense,  A.D.  755, 
iv,  :  "  Ut  bis  in  anno  synodus  fiat.  Prima  synodus  mense  primo,  quod  est  Martiis 
Kalendis,  ubicumque  domnus  rex  jusserit,  in  ejus  praesentia.  Secunda  synodus  Kalendis 
Octobris,  aut  ad  Suessiones,  aut  alibi,  uti  in  Martiis  Kalendis  inter  ipsos  episcopos  convenit." 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  V.,  col.  391,  Hincmari  Archiepiscopi  Remensis 
Capitula,  A.D.  852,  i.  :  "Anno  DCCCLii.  Kalendis  Novembris,  conventu  habito 
presbytorum  in  metropoli  civitate  Remorum,"  etc. 


56  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Gangdagas^  as  popular  as  on  the  cohtinent,  they  being  one  of  the  great 
tides  of  the  year  by  which  people  computed  time. 

In  the  Parker  ms.  (A)  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  in  the  same  year  in  which 
Martinmas  appears  for  the  first  time  (a.d.  913),  there  are  also  found  the 
Rogation  Days :  betweox  gangdagum  and  niiddurn  sumera.  They  are  held 
to  be  fixed  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday  of  the  Ascension  week, 
and  appear  once  more  in  921  to  gangdagum,  and  in  922  betweox  gangdagum 
and  middan  sumera.^  In  the  other  group  of  chronicles  represented  by  the 
Laud  MS.  (E),  the  entry  of  913  a.d.  is  the  same,  whilst  the  next  two 
are  lacking.     Then  the  Rogation  Days  appear  in  1016.^ 

The  term  denoting  at  once  the  beginning  of  the  Germanic  year,  and  of 
the  winter  season,  varies  from  the  Calends  of  November  to  mid-November, 
thus  keeping  clearly  within  the  time  which  had  to  be  assumed  as  the 
beginning  of  the  old  Germanic  liuleis  tide.^ 

^  The  only  similar  term  other  than  Martinmas  and  gangdagas  appearing  is  hlafinassa, 
the  later  Lammas ;  it  is  the  first  of  August,  Sti  Petri  ad  viiuiila  (Augusti),  frequently 
abbreviated  as  Gula  Augusti,  which,  of  course,  has  nothing  to  do  with  gula  (the  throat 
or  palate),  but  is  merely  a  mutilation  of  vhuula,  C  and  g  are  fiequently  interchanged  ; 
comp,  Gutnplete  for  Completa ;  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,  I., 
p.  78,  where  the  current  mistaken  explanation  of  Gula  Augusti  is  also  found.  Lammas 
appears  in  921  {betwix  hlafmcessan  atid  middum  sumera) ;  whilst  in  the  little  interpolation 
of  later  date  in  B  and  C,  which  is  styled  by  Earle  The  Atmals  of  ALthelflccd,  it  occurs 
as  early  as  913  and  917  {thces  foran  to  hlafmassan  send,  foran  to  hlcefmassan  lespectively). 
It  seems  to  have  been  the  term  dividing  the  economic  summer-tide,  instead  of  July  15. 

'^ Hlafmmssa  appears  in  917,  in  1085,  in  iioo,  in  iioi,  and  1 135,  whilst  ane  dtcge  icr 
sanctes  Petres  massan  afene  and  on  sanctes  Pet  res  mcessa  dccg  are  mentioned  in  1048, 
I131,    1132. 

^It  is  a  mere  exception  when  the  term  is  shifted  back  as  far  as  October  18.  In  the 
thirteenth  century  it  was  in  the  south  of  England  usual  and  right  that  plough  beasts  should 
be  in  the  stall  between  the  feast  of  St.  Luke  (October  18)  and  the  feast  of  the  Holy  Cross  (on 
May  3),  five-and-twenty  weeks  (Walter  of  Henley's  Husbandry,  ed.  by  Elizabeth  Lamond, 
London,  1890,  p.  13  :  "Custume  est  edreyt  ke  bestes  des  charues  seyent  a  la  creche  entre 
la  feste  de  seynt  luc  e  la  feste  de  la  seyt  croys  en  may  par  vint  e  cynk  semeynes  ").  At  the 
same  time  sheep  were  kept  in  houses  between  Martinmas  and  Easter  [Ibid.,  p.  31  :  "  Veet 
ke  vos  berbyz  seyent  en  mesun  entre  la  seynt  martyn  e  pasche  ").  Even  in  these  five-and- 
twenty  weeks  the  wintry  half  of  the  year  is  clearly  recognisable. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


MARTINMAS  AND   MICHAELMAS. 


In  Professor  Weinhold's  opinion  Michaelmas  is  an  older  term  and  festival 
than  Martinmas — a  view  not  tenable  for  a  moment,  as  he  easily  might  have 
seen  himself.  For,  in  the  text  of  his  book  on  the  division  of  the  German 
year,i  he  says  that  the  four  not-ordered  law  courts,  mentioned  in  some  legal 
documents,  are  Michaelmas  or  Martinmas,  Epiphany,  Easter,  John  Baptist's 
Day ;  and  when,  in  the  apparatus,^  he  has  to  give  the  proof,  he  instances 
seven  cases,  in  five  of  which  Martinmas  appears,  whilst  no  other  occurs 
so  often,  and  Michaelmas  and  John  Baptist's  Day  only  in  two.  If  any 
generalisation  is  to  be  gathered  from  these  facts,  it  is  that,  even  when  the 
Roman  quartering  had  superseded  the  Germanic  tri-partition  of  the  year, 
for  a  long  time  Martinmas  by  far  prevailed  over  Michaelmas.  He  further 
talks ^  of  all  kinds  of  usages  and  customs  having  been  transferred  from 
Michaelmas  to  Martinmas,  without  giving  a  single  historical  instance  of  such 
a  transference  j  nay,  even  without  attempting  any  proof  of  the  assertion  that 
they  were  found  earlier  at  Michaelmas  than  at  Martinmas.  The  fact  is  that, 
after  eighteen  hundred  years  of  effort  to  force  upon  the  Germanics  the 
quartering  of  the  year  and  a  beginning  of  the  winter  on  September  29,  the 
attempt  has  succeeded  so  little,  that  up  to  this  day  Martinmas  has  in  many 
places,  preserved  its  character  as  the  popular  beginning  of  the  winter. 
Grotefend*  shares  the  view  of  a  shifting  of  the  beginning  of  winter  from 

^  Uber  die  deutsche  Jahrteilung,  I-Ciel,   1862,  p.   10.  "^Ibid,,  p.  19.  "^ Ibid.,  p.  5. 

^ Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,  1891,  I.,  89,  JahreszeiUtt. 


58  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

September  29  to  November  ri,  and  adds  to  it  an  imaginary  shifting  of  the 
beginning  of  summer  from  April  or  Easter  to  the  middle  of  May,  whilst  in 
reality  the  middle  of  November  and  the  middle  of  May  are  the  most  ancient 
Germanic  terms,  and  in  Scandinavia  (as  Weinhold  and  Grotefend  know  very 
well)  a  shifting  by  one  full  month  has  taken  place,  so  that  October  14  and 
April  14  divide  the  year. 

In  the  Saxon  Chronicle  Martinmas  appears  first  in  913,  Michaelmas  first 
in  1014;  but  after  1066  the  mentions  of  the  latter  quickly  outnumber  those 
of  the  former.  From  the  Parker  ms.  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle  Martinmas 
appears  to  have  existed  long  before  Michaelmas.  We  have  in  913  ymb 
Marlines  maessan,  in  918  and  gig  foran  to  Marlines  mcessan,  in  921  thces 
ilcan  geres  foran  to  Marlines  mcsssan,  whilst  Michaelmas  does  not  occur  a 
single  time ;  in  tlie  Laud  ms.^  things  are  a  little  different.  Its  oldest  part 
was  written  in  the  tenth  century,  so  that  it  is  quite  irrelevant  that  under 
A.D.  759  appears  a  solitary  to  sancle  Michaeles  tyde.  This  can  only  be  a 
dating  after  a  later  fashion.  Then  Martinmas  is  mentioned  under  913,  915, 
971  (B),  1009,  1021,  1089,  1097,  1099,  HOC,  1 1 14,  whilst  Michaelmas 
appears  again  as  late  as  1014  (also  in  ms.  C)  ;  but  its  occurrences  become 
very  frequent  after  1066.^ 

Nobody  will  deny  that  Dr.  Heino  Pfannenschmid,  author  of  Germanische 
Ernlefeste*  is  the  first  authority  on  everything  connected  with  the  festivities 
held  in  autumn  on  Germanic  ground.  His  book,  though  written  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  is  still  the  best  on  the  subject,  and  unparalleled  by  another 
book  on  cognate  matter.  By  the  most  thorough  investigation  he  was  led 
to  the  conclusion  that  only  very  slight  traces  of  a  thanksgiving  for  the  corn 
harvest  can  be  discovered  in  the  later  Michaelmas,  and  that  it  almost 
exclusively,  in  Christian  times,  bears  the  character  of  a  celebration  for  the 
sake  of  the  dead  and  of  a  festival  in  honour  of  angels,'^  whilst  "  an  abundance 


^  Two  of  the  Saxon  Chronicles  parallel,  ed.  by  John  Earle,  Oxford,   1865. 

'•They  are  1066,  1086,  1089,  1091,  1095,  1097  (twice),  1098,  1099,  1 100,  iioi,  1102,  1103, 
1 106,  1 1 19,  1125,  1 126  (twice),  1 129  (twice).  Asserius,  De  Rebus  Gestis  Ailfredi,  Afonutnenta 
Historka  Britannica,  I. ,  p.  492,  has  in  venerabilis  Martini  festivitate  as  early  as  between 
886  and  893. 

■*  Hannover,  1878.  *Ibid.,  p.   193. 


MARTINMAS   AND   MICHAELMAS 


59 


of  customs,  which  point  to  the  ancient  heathen  autumn-festival  celebrated  in 
November,  have  clung  round  the  festival  held  in  honour  of  St.  Martin." 
The  expression  Herbstfeier  (autumn-festival)  is  perhaps  the  only  thing  in 
this  statement  which  might  be  improved  upon ;  it  should  be :  Festival  of 
winter's  beginning  and  summer's  close.^ 

Whilst  Martinmas  can  be  proved  to  have  been  a  popular  festival  in  578, 
when  the  banqueting  at  Martinmas  eve  was  forbidden  by  the  Synod  of 
Auxerre,  it  was  not  before  the  ninth  century  that  the  Church  made  an 
attempt  to  give  to  the  end  of  the  third  quarter  of  the  Roman  year  a  special 
importance  by  a  festival — that  of  St.  Michael  and  of  the  angels  and 
guardian  angels  in  general — called  in  Germany  Engelweihe  or  Fest  der  Engel.^ 
It  was  the  Council  of  Mayence  of  813  which  added  that  angel-festival  to 
two  others  (on  March  15  and  on  May  2).^  Round  this  festival  there 
gathered  from  that  time  a  number  of  habits  and  customs,  all  of  them 
inaugurated  by  certain  Church  practices,  but  becoming  a  little  more  popular 
with  every  century,  although  their  popularity  cannot,  even  so  late  as  the 
seventeenth  century,  compete  with  that  of  Martinmas.  Had  there  been 
any  Germanic  festival  about  that  time  which  the  Church  thought  it  worth 
while  to  absorb  and  use  for  its  own  purposes,  it  would  long  before  the 
ninth  century  have  instituted  some  saint's  day  of  special  prominence  in 
that  part  of  the  year.  The  payment  of  a  tax  or  duty  at  Michaelmas  cannot 
be  proved  before  the  tenth  century,  when  the  Anglo-Saxons  paid  the  fruit- 


^  When,  in  1893,  dealing  with  this  matter  in  my  book,  Die  Geschkhte  der  deutscheft 
Weihtmcht,  I  did  not  suppose  that  any  folklorist  could  be  unfamiliar  with  the  results  of  Dr. 
Pfannenschmid's  book,  and,  consequently,  endeavoured  solely  to  supplement  his  arguments, 
instead  of  restating  them  and  summing  them  up.  But  Professor  Weinhold  seems  really  to 
have  overlooked  them.  Otherwise  he  could  no  longer  be  in  favour  of  Michaelmas  as  the 
ancient  Germanic  festival  of  winter's  beginning. 

^  II.  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.  169 ;  Ducange,  Glossariuin  under 
Festum  S.  Michaelis:  "Est  ilia  dies,  inquit  Honorius  Augustod.,  Lib.  III.,  cap.  167,  qua 
populus  Christianus  cum  paganis  pugnavit,  et  victoriam  per  S.  Michaelem  Archangelum 
obtinuit ;  Cathiulphi  Epistitla  ad  Carolum  Magnum,  Vol.  II. ;  Historia  Francontim,  p.  667; 
Beletus,  c.  cxxix.,  cliii.  ;  Durandus,  Lib.  VII.,  c.  xii." 

^ Acta  Cotuiliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  IV.,  col.  1015;  Pfannenschmid,  Ibid., 
P-  175- 


6o  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

tithe  to  the  Church  on  St.  Michael's  day/  and  lease-rents  seem  not  to  have 
been  paid  in  England  at  Michaelmas  prior  to  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
rent  day  is  marked  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  by  the  fact 
that  the  landlords  used  to  invite  their  tenants  for  Michaelmas,  a  roast 
goose  being  the  festive  dish. 2  Under  King  Edward  IV.  (1461-1483),  John 
de  la  Hay  paid  to  William  Barneby  of  Lastres,  in  the  county  of  Hereford, 
among  other  things  as  rent  for  part  of  his  land,  a  goose  for  Michaelmas.^ 
We  still  are  able  to  trace  the  way  in  which  the  quarterly  division  of  the 
Roman  year  was  made  popular  by  the  Church.  In  England  the  four 
quatembers  or  ember  days  were  introduced  by  Gregory  the  Great  ( +  604), 
in  the  Prankish  empire  in  the  Staluta  Bonifacii,^  and  emphasised  by  Charle- 
magne's Capitulare  of  769,  chapter  xi.,  and  the  Synod  of  Mayence  of  813,'^ 
whilst  it  is  not  earlier  than  about  the  year  1000  that  a  fast-tide  is  brought 
into  connection  with  Michaelmas.*' 


^  Lingard,  Altertiimer  der  angelsdchsischen  Kirche,  Aus  dem  Englischen  ilbersetzt  von 
Ritter,  p.  55. 

'^N.   Drake,  Shakespeare  atid  his  Times,  p.    165. 

^  Fragmenta  Antiquitatis ;  Antient  Tenures  of  Land,  and  Jocular  Customs  of  some 
Manners,  by  T[homas]  B[lount],  London,  1679,  p.  8  :  "Johannes  de  la  Hay  cepit  de  Will. 
Barneby  Domino  de  Lastres  in  Com.  Heref.  imam  parcellam  terrae  de  terris  Dominicalibus. 
Reddend.  inde  per  annum  xx.  d.  et  unam  Aucam  habilem,  pro  prandio  Domini  in  Festo 
S.  Michaelis  Archangeli,  Sectam  Curiae  et  alia  Servitia  inde  debita,  etc.  i.  Paying  a 
Goose  fit  for  the  Lord's  dinner  on  Michaelmas  day." 

*"Doceant  presbyteri  populum  quatuor  legitima  temporum  jejunia  observare,  hoc  est 
in  mense  Martio,  Junio,  Septembri  et  Decembri." 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  IV.,  col.  1015 ;  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische 
Erntefeste,  425. 

^  Acta  Cotuiliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  VI.,  i.,  col.  794  ;  Leges  Ecclesiasticae  Aethelredi 
regis  circa  annum  1012  apud  ILaba?n  conditae,  chap.  ii.  :  "  De  jejunio  et  feriatione  trium 
dierum  ante  festum  Michaelis,"  etc.  "  Et  instituimus,  ut  omnis  christianus,  qui  aetatem 
habet,  jejunet  tribus  diebus,  jejunet  in  pane,  et  aqua,  et  herbis  crudis,  ante  festum  Sancti 
Michaelis.  Et  omnis  homo  ad  confessionem  vadat,  et  nudis  pedibus  ad  ecclesiam ;  et 
peccatis  omnibus  abrenunciet  emendando  et  cessando.  Et  eat  omnis  presbyter  cum  populo 
suo  ad  processionem  tribus  diebus  nudis  pedibus,  et  super  hoc  cantet  omnis  presbyter 
triginta  Missas,  et  omnis  diaconus  et  clericus  triginta  psalmos :  et  apparetur  tribus  diebus 
corrodium  unuscujusque  sine  came  in  cibo  et  potu,  sicut  idem  comedere  deberet,  et 
dividatur  hoc  totum  pauperibus.  Et  sit  omnis  servus  liber  ab  opere  illis  tribus,  quo  melius 
jejunare  possit :    operetur  siljimet  quod  vult.     Hi   sunt   illi   tres  dies ;   dies   Lunae,  dies 


MARTINMAS  AND   MICHAELMAS  6l 

The  first  time  that  Michaelmas  appears  alongside  Martinmas  is  in  813, 
in  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of  Mayence,i  where  also  the  birthday  of  John 
Baptist  (June  24)  and  the  day  of  Peter  and  Paul  (June  29)  appear  to  mark 
the  ultimate  quartering  of  the  year  according  to  solstices  and  equinoxes. 
In  858  the  list  considerably  differs  from  that  prevalent  before,^  but  even 
then  sometimes  Michaelmas  is  not  in  the  list,  whilst  the  Rogation  Days  are.^ 

In  England  St.  Michael's  day  seems  not  to  have  taken  root  much  before 
the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  King  Ethelred's  Laws  being  the  first  collection 
of  institutes  to  contain  an  ordinance  for  keeping  it,  while  so  far  only  the 
Apostle's  days,  the  Mary's  days,  and  Martinmas  had  been  kept,  besides  the 
three  great  Church  festivals  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Pentecost.*  Some- 
times both  terms  appear  together.^    The  mentions  of  Michaelmas  became 

Martis  et  dies  Mercurii  proximi  ante  festum  sancti  Michaelis."  This  ordinance  bears  the 
complete  stamp  of  being  a  mere  church  invention. 

Mf/a  Conciliortim,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  IV.,  col.  1015,  Concilium  Moguntiacum,  A.D. 
813,  xxxvi. :  "  Festos  dies  in  anno  celebrare  sancimus.  Hoc  est,  diem  Dominicum  Paschae, 
cum  omni  honore  et  sobrietate  venerari :  simili  modo  totam  hebdomadam  illam  observari 
decrevimus.  Diem  Ascensionis  Domini  pleniter  celebrare.  Item  Pentecosten  similiter 
ut  in  Pascha.  In  natali  apostolorum  Petri  et  Pauli  diem  unum,  Nativitatem  sancti  loannis 
Baptistae.  Assumptionem  sanctae  Mariae,  dedicationem  sancti  Michaelis,  natalem  sancti 
Remigii,  sancti  Martini,  sancti  Andreae.  In  Natali  Domini  dies  quatuor,  octavas  Domini, 
Epiphaniam  Domini,  Purificationem  sanctae  Mariae.  Et  illas  festivitates  martyrum,  vel  con- 
fessorum  observare  decrevimus,  quorum  in  unaquaque  parochia  sancta  corpora  requiescunt. 
Similiter  etiam  Dedicationem  templi." 

"^Acta  Conciliortitn,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  V.,  col.  454,  Herardi  Turonensis  Capitula, 
A.D.  858,  Ixi.  :  "  De  festivitatibus  anni,  quae  feriari  debeant,  id  est,  Natali  Domini,  sancti 
Stephani,  sancti  loannis,  et  Innocentium,  octavas  Domini,  Epiphania,  Purificatione  sanctae 
Mariae,  et  Assumptione,  Ascensione  Domini  et  Pentecoste.  Missa  sancti  loannis  Baptistae, 
Apostolorum  Petri  et  Pauli,  sancti  Michaelis,  atque  omnium  sanctorum,  sancti  Martini,  et 
sancti  Andreae,  et  eorum,  quorum  corpora  ac  debitae  venerationes  in  locis  singulis  peraguntur. " 

^ Ibid.,  v.,  col.  462,    Walterii  Aurelianensis  Capitula,  xviii.,  about  A.D.  850. 

"^ King  Ethelred's  Laws  (991-1016)  in  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  viii.,  p.  337,  ii. 
(Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  VI.,  I.,  col.  793-4,  Leges  Ecclesiasticae  Aethelredi 
Regis,  ca.  a.d.  1012,  ii.);  and  in  the  concluding  passage  vii.  in  p.  339:  "  Et  reddatur 
pecunia  eleemosinae  hinc  ad  festum  Sancti  Michaelis,  si  alicubi  retro  sit,  per  plenam 
witam,"  etc. 

'Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  479,  xxviii.  of  the  Laws  of  William  the  Conqueror:  "  De 
qualibet  hida  in  hundredo  iiii.  homines  ad  stretwarde  invenientur  a  festo  Sancti  Michaelis, 
usque  ad  festum  Sancti  Martini." 


62  YULE   AND  CHRISTMAS 

more  frequent  after  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  the  time  when  the 
quartering  of  the  year  according  to  Roman  custom  had  been  effected  all 
over  the  realm  governed  by  the  Church,  From  a.d.  877  the  term  intra 
tres  menses  appears  in  the  Councils  of  the  Church,'  which  shows  that 
quarters  of  years  had  become  the  unities  to  be  reckoned  with. 

Probably  the  institution  of  a  quartering  term  at  the  division  between 
September  and  October  would  not  have  been  so  easy  had  it  not  had  a  certain 
economic  basis  in  an  important  change  which  took  place  contemporaneously. 
Up  to  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  of  our  era  the  Germanics  had,  for  their 
livelihood,  almost  entirely  depended  upon  pasture.  It  was  only  in  the 
Carolingian  age  that  the  cultivation  of  meadows  began  to  develop ;  and  in 
consequence  of  the  vast  increase  in  produce  of  cattle,  the  continental 
Germanic  tribes  grew  quickly  in  numbers.  But  for  several  centuries  the 
improved  cultivation  of  meadows  for  the  purposes  of  pasture  continued  to 
surpass  agriculture  in  importance,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  not  much 
before  a.d.  iooo  that  agriculture  took  equal  rank  with  pasture  as  a  means 
of  livelihood.  The  pasture  time  did  not  end  before  the  beginning  of  actual 
winter.  After  Martinmas  it  was  no  longer  considered  possible  to  pasture  foals, 
so  that  before  a.d.  800  it  was  not  customary  to  let  them  be  out  at  pasture  after 
that  term. 2  For  the  same  length  of  time  swine  were  kept  in  the  oak  forest 
in  the  Westphalia  and  Tirol  of  the  fifteenth  century.^  The  time  in  which 
no  pasture  was  possible  extends  there  down  to  the  sixteenth  century  von  St. 
Martanstag  bis  auf  mitten  meien^ 


^  Acta  Conciliorut?t,  Parisiis,  1714,  VI.,  i,  col.  185,  Synodus  Ravennae  habita,  A.D. 
877,  i.,  ii. 

"^  Capitulare  de  Villis,  by  Charlemagne :  "  Ut  poledros  nostros  missa  sancti  Martini 
hiemale  ad  palatium  omnimodis  habeant." 

^  "Op  S.  Remigy  dach  (Oct.  i)  in  tho  driven  in  den  wolde  twelff  schwine  vnd  een  beer 
vnd  die  Martin  wieder  vuith  tho  driven  ;  weer  saecke  die  beer  daer  nicht  mede  en  ist,  mach 
men  die  schwine  uthschiitten"  (a.d.  1465,  Speller  Waldweistum ,  Westphalia),  Freiherrvon  Low, 
Uber  die  Markgenos  sense  haft  eft,  Heidelberg,  1829,  p.  99;  Piper,  Beschreibungdes  Markenrechts 
in  Westphalen,  Halle,  1763,  pp.  158,  159. 

*Zingerle,  Tiroler  Weistiimer,  III.,  pp.  72,  73,  A.D.  1542;  on  the  meadows  which  were 
the  common  property  of  the  communities  of  Mais  and  Burgeis.  A  long  list  of  cases  from 
Tirol   legal  documents,    which   shows   that    Martinmas   was   throughout   the   beginning   of 


MARTINMAS  AND  MICHAELMAS  63 

At  least  as  regards  the  beginning  of  winter,  similar  conditions  ruled  the 
economic  year  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  eleventh  century.  Just  as  Tirol 
documents  of  the  fifteenth  century  considered  the  season  of  the  year  to  be 
summer  from  mitte  merzen  to  Martinmas,^  the  Reciitudo  Geburi  treated  the 
season  of  winter  as  from  Martinmas  till  Easter,  Martinmas  being  given  as 
the  date  at  which  the  ploughing  of  the  fields  came  to  an  end,  and  the  time 
between  February  2  and  Easter  being  denoted  as  no  less  busy  than  the 
harvest-tide.2  It  is  in  this  latter  state,  however,  that  a  change  is  contained. 
Whilst  the  real  pasture  time  does  not  begin  much  before  mid-May,  the 
field  work  sets  in  about  two  months  earlier,  though  in  Germany  nowhere 
at  the  beginning  of  February. 

But  soon  enough  in  autumn  also  a  change  was  wrought  by  the  spreading 
of  agriculture.     All  grain  and  aftermath  are  stored  in  the  bams  towards 

winter,  is  given  in  the  apparatus  to  my  Geschichte  der  dentschen  VVeihnacht,  Leipzig,  1893, 
pp.  291-3.  As  late  as  the  fifteenth  century  the  I'ibe  Herr  sant  Martein  is  addressed  as 
the  keeper  and  patron  of  cattle  (Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,   1189). 

"  Ich  treip  heut  aus 
in  unser  lieben  frauen  haus, 
in  Abrahames  garten 
der  lieber  herr  sant  Martein 
der  sol  heut  meines  vihes  warten." 

Karl  Godeke,  Deutsche  Dichtung  im  Mittelalter,  Dresden,  1871,  p.  243-5.  Hirtensegen 
from  a  fifteenth  century  MS. 

^Zingerle,  TiroUr  Weisiiimer,  IV.,  p.  33,  A.D.  1431,  of  Partschins,  whilst  the  seven- 
teenth century  began  it  on  April  23,  and  ended  it  on  Martinmas.  Zingerle,  Ibid.,  III., 
p.  65,  A.D.   1630,  of  Burgeis. 

^  1  horpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  434-435, :  "  Rectitudines  Singularum  Personarum  :  Geburi 
consuetudines  inveniuntur  multimodae,  et  ubi  sunt  onerosae  et  ubi  sunt  leviores  aut  mediae. 
In  quibusdam  terris  operatur  opus  septimanae,  11.  dies,  sic  opus  sicut  ei  dicetur  per 
anni  spatium,  omni  septimana ;  et  in  Augusto  HI.  dies  pro  septimanali  operatione,  et  a 
festo  Candelarum  ad  usque  Pascha  III.  Si  averiat,  non  cogitur  operari  quamdiu  equus 
eius  foris  moratur.  Dare  debet  in  festo  Sancti  Michaelis  X.  denarios  de  gablo,  et  Sancti 
Martini  die  xxiii.,  et  sestarium  ordei,  et  II.  gallinas.  Ad  Pascha  i.  ovem  juvenem,  vel  II. 
denarios.  Et  jacebit  a  festo  Sancti  Martini  usque  ad  Pascha  ad  faldani  domini  sui,  quotiens 
ei  pertinebit.  Et  a  termino  quo  primitus  arabitur  usque  ad  festum  Sancti  Martini  arabit 
unaquaque  septimana  i.  acram,  et  ipse  parabit  semen  domini  sui  in  horreo.  Ad  haec  11 1, 
acras  precum,  et  duas  de  herbagio.  Si  plus  indigeat  herbagio,  arabit  proinde  sicut  ei 
permittatur."     Here  August  is  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  text  corresponded  by  hcerfest. 


64  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

the  end  of  September.  In  Anglo-Saxon  time  August  was  the  month  of 
harvest.^  Except  Professor  Weinhold,  nobody  doubts  any  longer  the  late 
origin  of  the  harvest  festivals.  Professor  Mogk  agrees  with  Heino  Pfannen- 
schmid,  author  of  Germanische  Erntefestc,  who  maintains  that  Michaelmas  is 
rooted  in  economic  conditions,  the  existence  of  which  the  Germanics  owe  to 
the  Romans.2  In  the  same  degree  as,  in  the  centuries  which  followed, 
agriculture  excelled  pasture  as  a  means  of  producing  food,  Martinmas  was 
bound  to  decay  in  favour  of  Michaelmas,  which  was  bound  to  receive  ever 
new  stress.  But  another  economic  force  also  set  in,  with  a  tendency 
destructive  of  a  Martinmas  celebration,  though  without  anything  in  it  to 
raise  the  significance  of  Michaelmas.  In  olden  times  it  had  been  the  most 
economical  course  to  leave  cattle,  swine,  sheep,  and  horses  on  the  pasture 
grounds  till  the  actual  winter  came,  and  then  at  once  to  kill  all  such  of 
those  animals  as  could  not  be  kept  over  the  winter.  Thus,  in  the  first  half 
of  November,  a  great  killing  time  for  the  domestic  animals  had  begun, 
which  was  apparently  distinguished  by  the  festival  at  the  beginning  of 
winter.  With  the  improvement  which  took  place  in  the  cultivation  of 
meadows   in    the    Carolingian    age,  the  quantity  of  hay  produced  annually 

^This  appears  plainly  from  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  432-33:  "  Recti tudines  Singu- 
larum  Personarum :  Cot-setle  rectum  est  juxta  quod  in  terra  constitutum  est.  Apud 
quosdam  debet  omni  die  Lunae,  per  anni  spatium,  operari  domino  suo,  et  tribus  diebus 
unaquaque  septimana  in  Augusto.  Apud  quosdam,  operatur  per  totum  Augustum,  omni 
die,  et  unam  acram  avenae  metit  pro  diurnale  opere."  The  word  corresponding  to  August 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  text  of  this  Rectitudo  is  again  hcerfest :  "  Kote-setlan  riht.  be  dham  dhe 
on  lande  stent.  On  sumon  he  sceal  selce  Mon-daege  ofer  geares  iyrst  his  laforde  wyrcan. 
odhdh  III.  dagar  selcre  wucan  on  hserfest  ne  dhearf  he  land-gafol  syllan."  When  Jacob 
Grimm  explains  evenmant  (September)  as  meaning  oats-month  (from  Latin  havaia, 
Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  1848,  L,  p.  87),  he  is  probably  wrong,  for  oats  were 
reaped  before  September.  The  term,  which  is  of  very  late  origin,  is  rather  to  be  put 
beside  even-naht  (equinox),  and  means  the  month  of  equinox  on  Frisian  ground.  So  is 
Grotefend  wrong  {Zeitrechnung,  L,  p.  54).  From  the  quotations  given  there  it  is  apparent 
that  the  term  Evenmaend  is  confined  to  the  Nether-Rhine  up  to  Cologne. 

'^"Auch  auf  deutschem  Boden  scheinen  wir  noch  Uberreste  dieser  alten  Sommer-  und 
Herbstopfer  zu  haben  :  jener  in  der  Hagelfeier,  dem  Johannisopfer,  an  dem  es  besonders 
gait,  Menschen,  Vieh  und  Erzeugnisse  des  Bodens  vor  bosen  Geistern  zu  schiitzen,  dieser 
in  den  Erntefesten  oder  den  Martinsschmausen,  doch  sind  die  Nachrichten  auf  diesem 
Gebiete  mit  Vorsicht  fiir  altgermanischen  Kult  zu  verwerten,  da  sie  in  Kulturverhaltnissen 


MARTINMAS  AND   MICHAELMAS  65 

was  increased,  and  consequently  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  slaughter  at 
once  all  the  domestic  animals  designed  for  food.  They  could  now  in 
part  be  kept  for  some  time  in  the  stable,  and  fattened  whilst  they  did  not 
move  about  very  much.  Thus  the  great  killing  time  slowly  advanced  further 
into  winter — to  St.  Andrew's  day  (November  30)^  or  St.  Nicolas  day 
(December  5).^ 

So  late  as  the  time  of  King  David  I.  of  Scotland  (11 24-1 153)  the 
usual  time  of  slaughter  for  cattle,  swine,  and  sheep  was  from  Martinmas 
till  Christmas,  and  these  forty-four  days  were  in  legal  language  called 
"tyme  of  slauchter."^     Almost  contemporaneously  a  pig  appeared  as  a  duty 

ihre  Wurzel  haben,  die  wir  hauptsachlich  den  Romern  verdanken"  {Mythologie,  1 127,  in 
Paul's  Gnindriss  der  germanischen  Fhilologie,  Strassburg,  1891,  Vol.  I.).  This  argument 
does  not,  however,  hold  good  for  the  Martinsschmduse ',  for  the  impossibility  to  pasture 
cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  beyond  Martinmas  is  much  older  than  the  Roman  influence  upon 
the  Germanics  is. 

*A  St.  Andrew's  feast  is  mentioned  e.g.  by  Melchior  Goldast  of  Haiminsfeld,  Rerum 
Alamannicarum  Scriptores  Aliquot  Vetusti,  Francofurti,  1661,  I.,  p.  97,  in  Ephetnerides 
Monasterii  S.  Galli:  "Andreae  Apostoli.  Eodem  festo  dat  Hospitarius  X.  fercula,  scilicet 
bis  cames,  bis  pisces,  bis  caseos,  bis  ova,  duos  ciatos,  et  unum  stuopum,  maximum  leibonem, 
et  minorem  leibunculum,  et  in  vespera  stuopum,  lunulas  et  oblatas  de  Linkinwiller. " 

^Thorpe,  Aiuient  Laws,  I.,  461,  Leges  Regis  Edwardi  Confessoris  (1042-1066):  "  De 
Occisionibus  Animalium  contra  natale.  xxxix.  Cum  autem  dictum  est,  quod  non  emerent 
animalia  praeter  pl^ios,  clamaverunt  macecrarii,  qnos  Angli  vocant  fleismangeres,  de 
civitatibus  et  burgis,  quod  quaque  die  oportebat  eos  emere  animalia,  occidere  et  vendere 
[L.  add  :  nam  in  occisione  animalium  erat  vita  eorum].  Clamabant  etiam  cives  et  burgenses 
pro  consuetudinibus  suis,  quod  circa  festum  Sancti  Martini  emebant  animalia  [L.  instead  : 
consueverant  animalia  in  foro  mercari]  sine  plegiis,  ad  faciendas  suas  occisiones  contra 
Natale  Domini,  quas  consuetudines  justas  et  sapienter  ductas  non  auferimus  eis,  tamen  in 
mercatis  emptis  cum  testibus  et  cognitione  venditorum."  As  to  the  masting  of  swine  and 
the  varying  thickness  of  their  fat,  compare  the  Lmws  of  King  lite  in  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laru's 
and  Institutes  of  England,  I.,  p.  133  (xlix.),  where  different  fines  are  prescribed  for  taking 
forbidden  mast,  according  to  the  thickness  of  the  fat  of  the  swine.  There  were  rules  laid 
down  for  the  swine-herd,  how  many  swine  of  each  class  had  to  be  slaughtered  every  year 
(Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  pp.  436  437 :  "  Gafolswane,  id  est,  ad  censum  porcario, 
pertinet,  ut  suam  occisionem  det  secundum  quod  in  patria  statutum  est.  In  multis  locis 
Stat,  ut  det  singulis  annis  xv.  porcos  ad  occisionem,  x.  veteres  et  V.  juvenes ;  ipse  autem 
habeat  super-augmentum  "),  though  the  exact  time  of  killing  the  swine  is  not  stated  in 
any  Rectitude  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  period. 

*  Leges  Burgorum  Scocie,  or  luges  et  Consuetudines  Quatuor  Burgorum  Berewic 
Rokisburg   Edinburg  et  Strivelin,  constitute  edite  ac   confirmate  per   Regent    David,  titulo 

£ 


66  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

to  be  paid  at  Christmas  in  Germany,^  which,  of  course,  meant  that  it  was 
to  be  killed  at  once. 

In  Scotland  Martinmas  was,  so  late  as  1800,  "the  term  at  which  beeves 
are  usually  killed  for  winter."  This  was  "commonly  called  Martlemas  in 
England,  whence  the  phrase  mentioned  by  Serenius,^  '  Martlemas  beef.'"^ 
Brand's  Popular  Antiquities'^  tell  of  a  little  later  time  :  "  Two  or  more  of  the 
poorer  sort  of  rustic  families  still  join  in  purchasing  a  cow,  etc.,  for  slaughter 
at  the  time  (called  in  Northumberland  a  Mart),  the  entrails  of  which,  after 
having  been  filled  with  a  kind  of  pudding  meat  consisting  of  blood,  suet, 
groats,  etc.,  are  formed  into  little  sausage  links,  boiled,  and  sent  about  as 
presents,  etc.  From  their  appearance  they  are  called  Black  Puddings." 
Jamieson^  mentions  that  the  Black  Puddings  were,  at  the  beginning  of  our 

LXIV.  De  Officio  Carnificum    (in    The  Acts  of  the  Parliaments  of  Scotland,  Vol.   I.,  A.D. 
1 124  to  1423  ;  1844,  p.   346)  : 

LXIV.  "De  Officio  Carnificum  "Of  Fleschewaris  in  the  Burgh 

"  Quicunque    carnes    vendere    voluerit  "  Quha  that  wyl  sell  flesche  he  sal  sell 

vendat  bonas  carnes  scilicet  bovinas  ovinas  gude  flesche  beyff  muttone  and  pork  eftir 

et  porcinas  et  vendat  secundum  considera-  the  ordinans  of  gud  men  of  the  toune  and 

cionem  proborum  hominum  ville  et  ponat  he  sal  sett  his  flesche  opynly  in  his  wyndow 

eas  in  fenestra  sua  ut  sint  communes  omni-  that  it  be  sene  communly  till  al  men  that 

bus    emere    volentibus       Carnifices    vero  will  tharof    And  fleschewaris  forsuth  sal 

servient    burgensibus    tempore    occisionis  serve  the  burges  in  tyme  of  slauchter  that 

scilicet  a  festo  sancti    Martini  usque  ad  is  to  say  fra  the  fest  of  sayncte  Martyne 

natale  Domini  de  carnibus  suis  preparandis  quhil  yhule  of  the  flesche  in  thar  lardyner 

et  conficiendis  in  lardariis    Si  vero  carnes  to  be   graythit   and  dycht     And  gif  the 

male    preparentur    carnifex     restituet    ei  fleschewar  graythis  ivil  flesche  he  sal  restor 

dampnum     suum     cuius     erant     animalia  hym  the  scathis  that  aw  the  bestys     And 

Carnifices  dum  serviunt  burgensibus  come-  the  fleschewaris  quhilis   thai  serve   thaim 

dent    ad    mensam    illorum     scilicet     cum  thai  sal  ete  at  thair  burde  wyth  thair  ser- 

servientibus  eorum     Et  habebunt  pro  uno  vandis     And  thai  sal  hafe  for  a  cow  or  ane 

marto  obolum  pro  quinque  ovibus  obulum  ox  a  halpeny  and  for  v  shepe  a  halpeny 

pro  uno  porco  obulum  "  and  for  a  swyne  a  halpeny  " 

^  Grimm,  Deutsche  Rechtsaltertiimer,  V.,  537,  Baubach,  Lower  Alsace,  A.i).  1 143, 
§  5  :  "Ipse  villicus  mansum  cum  omnibus  iustitiis  habebit,  porro  in  natale  domini  curiam 
visitabit,   12  panes,  4  sextaria  vini  et  unum  porcum,  quem  pascalem  vocant,  apportabit." 

''■English  and  Swedish  Dictionary,  Nykoping,   1757. 

^Jamieson,  Etytnological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  under  "Mart." 

*P.  355-  ^Jbid. 


MARTINMAS   AND   MICHAELMAS  67 

century,  as  they  still  are,  an  appendage  of  the  Mart  in  Scotland.  They 
were  made  of  blood,  suet,  onions,  pepper,  and  a  little  oatmeal.^  A  cow  or 
ox  which  was  fattened,  killed,  and  salted  for  winter  provision  was  at  least 
from  the  fifteenth  to  the  nineteenth  century  in  Scotland  called  a  Mart 
(Gaelic  =  cow),  Marie,  or  Mairt? 

The  sculptured  capitals  of  the  choir-pillars  of  Carlisle  Cathedral  present  a 
probably  unrivalled  fourteenth  century  series  of  figures,  depicting  the  occu- 
pations of  the  seasons.^  While  June  is  there  described  as  the  month  of 
hunting  with  a  hawk,  and  July  as  the  time  of  mowing  with  a  scythe,  the 
representative  of  August,  holding  in  one  hand  a  crutch  and  in  the  other  a 
weed-hook,  is  cutting  off  with  the  latter  the  thick  succulent  stalk  of  a  thistle- 
leaf  which  borders  the  opening ;  and  it  is  September  which  is  denoted  as 
the  month  of  grain-harvest,  its  symbol  being  a  man  in  a  field  of  wheat, 
holding  a  handful  in  his  right  hand,  and  cutting  it  with  a  sickle  in  his  left. 
October  is  the  tide  of  grape-harvest,  the  bunch  of  grapes  in  the  left  hand, 


^  The  eighteenth  century  song  says  : 

' '  It  fell  about  the  Martinmas  time, 
And  a  gay  time  it  was  than, 
When  our  gudewife  got  puddings  to  mak', 
And  she  boil'd  them  in  the  pan." 
(_The  Songs  of  Scotland  chronologically  arranged,  London,  2nd  ed.,  p.  158;  "Get  up  and 
bar  the  door,"  from  Herd's  Collection). 

^  Jamieson,  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  under  ' '  Mart. "  He  gives  the 
following  instances:  "Of  fleshers  being  burgesses,  and  slaying  mairts  with  their  awin  hands" 
{Chalmerlan  Air,  c.  39,  s.  68).  "That  all — martis,  muttoun,  pultrie, — that  war  in  the 
handis  of  his  Progenitouris  and  Father — cum  to  our  Souerane  Lord,  to  the  honorabill 
sustentation  of  his  hous  and  nobill  estate"  (Acts  of  James  IV.,  1489,  c.  24,  edit.  1566; 
Skene,  Laws  and  Acts  of  Parliament,  Fol.,  Edin.,  1597,  c.  lo).  "In  1565,  the  rents 
were  £'2.(>'i  19s.  2d.  sterling, — 60  marts  or  fat  beeves,  162  sheep,"  etc.  {Statistical  Account, 
v.,  4).  The  same  word  is  also  used  metaphorically  to  denote  those  who  are  pampered 
with  ease  and  prosperity:  "As  for  the  fed  Marts  of  this  warlde,  the  Lord  in  his  righteous 
judgement,  hes  appoynted  them  for  slaughter"  (Bruce's  Eleven  Sermons,  1591,  A.  4  a., 
Jamieson,  Ibid.).  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  Celtic  word  Mart -covf  was  very 
early  brought  into  connection  with  Martinmas. 

^  Described  by  James  Fowler  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Cumberland  and  Westviorland 
Antiquarian  and  Archaeological  Society,  IV.,  p.  280,  which  description  is  extracted  in  R.  S. 
Ferguson's  Guide  to  Carlisle,  Carlisle,  1890,  pp.  45-46. 


68  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

the  hooked  knife  in  the  right  hand  of  the  vine-dresser,  and  the  basket 
upon  the  ground  by  his  side  denoting  it  as  such.  It  is  November  and 
December  which  bring  in  the  domestic  animals.  The  emblem  of  November 
is  a  man  in  boots,  sowing  corn  broadcast  with  his  right  hand  out  of  a 
wicker  basket  hanging  at  his  left  side,  suspended  by  a  strap  from  his  right 
shoulder.  Oak-leaves  and  acorns  are  on  the  bell  of  the  western  member 
of  this  capital ;  on  the  eastern  member  of  the  next  capital  is  seen  a  swine- 
herd in  the  midst  of  oak-leaves  and  acorns  tending  a  herd  of  swine  feeding,  one 
of  the  swine  having  its  head  raised  as  if  to  catch  a  falling  acorn.  December 
is  a  man  with  an  axe  grasped  by  the  handle  in  both  hands,  raised,  and  with 
the  back  of  it  about  to  fall  on  the  forehead  of  an  ox,  which  is  held  fast 
by  its  horns  by  a  man,  in  similar  costume  to  the  first,  standing  behind  it. 
January  is  the  time  of  gay  drinking,  its  representative  having  three  smooth 
unbearded  faces  under  one  skull  cap,  drinking  by  the  right  and  left  mouths 
out  of  shallow  cups  held  respectively  in  the  right  hand  and  in  the  left, 
and  with  the  central  face  looking  impassively  forward.  A  jug  wherewith 
to  replenish  his  cups  stands  on  the  ground  at  his  left  side.  February  is 
nothing  but  the  month  of  cold  and  wet  weather ;  March  digs  up  the  ground 
round  still  leafless  trees;  April,  with  a  crooked  knife,  cuts  dry  branches 
down  from  them ;  and  May  is  the  gay  month  of  young  foliage  and  flowers, 
its  symbol  being  a  woman  holding  in  each  hand  a  ^^eur-de-fys-shsL^ted.  bunch 
of  sprouting  foliage,  and  presenting  them  to  a  young  man,  who,  by  his  right 
hand,  takes  from  her  the  bunch  in  her  hand. 

On  the  Nether  Rhine,  about  a.d.  1400,  the  killing  time  of  swine  was 
about  Christmas,^  just  as  in  England,  a  little  later,  December  was  the  principal 
month  of  slaughter.^     In  the  Germany  of  the  sixteenth  century,  under  the 


^  Annalen  des  Historischett  Vereins  fiir  den  Niederrhein,  Instalment  LIV.,  1892,  p.  12; 
Book  of  Expenditure  of  Herr  von  Drachenfels,  139S,  p.  21,  Jan.  4,  1396,  No.  56  :  "  i  alb 
um  spiskraut,  i  alb  um  eier  up  dat  huis,  doe  man  die  verken  affdeide ; "  p.  37,  Nov.  29, 
1396 :  "Ich  haen  Heynen  Volrait  gegen  55  m  van  den  verken  die  zuo  jair  up  vur  kirsnacht 
wurden  gegulden." 

^ Bartholomaeus  Anglicus,  IX.,  chap.  xix.  (ed.  1488):  "De  Decembre.  In  hoc  mense 
propter  asperitatem  frigoris  sunt  altilia  et  animalia  domestica  multae  quietis  et  parvi  motus, 
et  ideo  plurimum  impinguantur.     Unde  tunc  temporis  interficiuntur  potissime  et  mactantur; 


MARTINMAS   AND   MICHAELMAS  69 

influence  of  agricultural  progress,  the  killing  time  of  pigs  extended  to  Epiphany,^ 
and  shortly  afterwards  to  St.  Anthony's  Day  (January  ly),^  thus  reaching  the 
second  half  of  January.^  To  February  it  was  shifted  not  earlier  than  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  the  cultivation  of  potatoes  had  become  popular 
and  productive  enough  to  keep  especially  swine  through  the  greater  part 


propter  quod  depingitur  tanquam  camifex  qui  cum  securi  percutit  et  mactat  porcum  suum.' 
That  the  slaughter  began  in  November  is  shown  by  the  following  passage  :  "  Of  our  tame 
boars  we  make  brawn,  which  is  a  kind  of  meat  not  usually  known  to  strangers.  .  .  . 
With  us  it  is  accounted  a  great  piece  of  service  at  the  table  from  November  until 
February  be  ended,  but  chiefly  in  the  Christmas  time.  With  the  same  also  we  begin  our 
dinners  each  day  after  other ;  and,  because  it  is  somewhat  hard  of  digestion,  a  draught 
of  malvesey,  bastard,  or  muscadel  is  usually  drank  after  it."  .  .  .  {Elizabethan  England: 
from  "A  Description  of  England,"  by  William  Harrison  (in  Hollinshed' s  Chronicles), 
edited  by  Lothorp  Withington,  with  Introduction  by  F.  J.  Fumivall,  London,  The  Scott 
Library,  p.  658). 

^  Lauterbach  Document  of  1589,  Grimm,  Deutsche  Rechtsaltertiiiner,  III.,  369:  a  young 
pig  which  had  not  reached  maturity  was  led  round  through  the  benches  (and,  probably, 
killed  afterwards). 

^Montanus,  p.  17;  Sebastian  Franck,  Weltbuch,  I.,  p.  131;  Ulrich  Jahn,  Deutsche 
Opfergebrduche,  p.  266. 

^  At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  occupations  of  the  time  of  October  to  January 
are  described  in  the  following  way : 

October. 
"  Frigoribus  coelum  magis  intractabile  reddit, 
October,  stabula  hinc  cogit  adire  pecus. 
Arboribus  fructus  adimit,  spoliatque  decore, 
Atque  etiam  cupide  turbida  musta  bibit. 

Aliter. 
October  mustum  calcatis  exprimit  uvis 
Et  serit  hoc  anno  quae  redeunte  metat. 

November. 
Ligna  vehit  mactatque  boves,  et  laetus  ad  ignem 
Ebria  Martini  festa  November  agit. 
Ad  pastum  in  silvam  porcos  compellit,  et  ipse 
Pinguibus  interea  vescitur  anseribus. 

Aliter. 
Autumnus  quaecunque  dedit,  consume  November, 
Et  pinguem  hybema  glande  trucido  suem. 


70  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

of  the  winter.  This  movement  was,  on  legal  ground,  accompanied  by  a 
shifting  of  a  great  number  of  duties  and  taxes  to  the  beginning  of  the 
new  year,  reckoned  either  as  at  Christmas  or  on  January  i,  so  that  Michael- 
mas, Christmas,  Easter,  and  St.  John's  Day  came  to  be  the  four  great  terms  all 
over  Europe,  wherever  the  Roman  Calendar  and  the  Roman  Church  succeeded 
in  uprooting  the  ancient  Germanic  tri-partition  of  the  year.^  The  economic 
evolution,  more  especially  the  prevalence  of  agriculture  over  cattle-keeping, 
thus  tended  to  destroy  the  ancient  Germanic  mid-November  celebration, 
whilst  favouring  both  a  harvest  festival  held  earlier  in  the  year  and  the 
development  of  a  festival  about  the  middle  of  the  German  winter. 


December.  ^  - 

In  nive  persequitur  vestigia  pressa  ferarum, 
Abluit  et  calida  membra  December  aqua. 
Affert  Solslitium,  celebrat  cunabula  Christi, 
Et  iugulat  porcos,  tribula  dura  ferit. 

A  liter. 
Haud  avis,  baud  fera  venanti  deest  ulla  Decembri, 
Quamvis  ningat  atrox  et  gelet  usque  vadum. 

Januarius. 
lanus  vina  bibit,  crepitantique  assidet  igni. 
Et  pingues  carnes  torret,  editque  suem. 
Annum  praeteritum  claudit,  reseratque  futurum, 
Sed  venam  ferro  tangere,  iure  vetat" 

{Ranzovii  Exempla,  Quibus  Aetrologicae  Scientiae  Certitudo  Contprobatur,  Coloniae,  1585, 
pp.  304,  306,  307,  which  latter  two  are  there  wrongly  numbered  400  and  303).  Another 
piece  from  the  same  time  says  of  December : 

"  Prassen  will  ich  und  leben  wol, 
Eine  Sau  ich  itzunder  stechen  sol." 
(Grasse,  Des  deutschen  Landmanns  Practica,  Dresden,   1858,  p.   28). 

^  Michaelmas  appears  as  a  term  for  paying  duties  very  frequently  from  the  sixteenth 
century.  Landesordnung  des  Herzogtums  Preussen  von  1525,  Pfannenschmid,  Gernianische 
Erntefeste,  p.  118;  Richter,  Kirchenordnungen,  I.,  32;  Ibid.,  II.,  355;  Hoyaische 
Kirchenordnung  von  1573,  where  Michaelmas  is  called  the  vierte  Hochfesttag,  and  put  into 
parallel  with  Christmas,  Pasch,  and  Whitsunday,  thus  clearly  standing  in  relation  to  the 
Roman  quartering  of  the  year. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SOLSTICES  AND  EQUINOXES. 

Jacob  Grimm,  as  has  been  shown  already,  had  a  perfect  grasp  of  the 
six-fold  division  of  the  year  found  among  the  Germanics  at  the  dawn  of 
history.  And  though  he  did  not  know  that  it  had  been  borrowed  from 
the  Orient,  and  probably  ultimately  from  Egypt,  and  that  it  was  by  no 
means  genuine  and  common  Aryan  property,  yet  he  did  not  fail  to  see 
how  deep-rooted  it  was  in  the  legal,  cultural,  and  economic  conditions  of 
our  ancestors.  It  is  a  very  strange  fact  that  he  should  have  thought  a 
knowledge  of  two  solstices  and  two  equinoxes,  together  with  a  quartering 
of  the  year,  reconcilable  with  the  conclusions  as  to  the  Aryan  year  in 
general,  which  of  necessity  must  be  drawn  from  a  six-fold  division.  Had 
he  been  aware  that  these  two  ways  of  looking  at  the  course  of  the  year 
were  mutually  exclusive,  he  would  have  been  led  to  a  further  examination 
of  each,  and  then  would  have  found  that  a  cognizance  of  solstices  and 
equinoxes  must  be  denied  to  the  early  Aryans,  as  well  as  to  the  Germanics 
before  their  acquaintance  with  the  Roman  calendar;  that  the  quartering  of 
the  year  is  of  purely  Roman  origin,  and  is  not  found  elsewhere ;  that  there 
is  no  historical  evidence  whatever  for  a  celebration  of  solstices  and 
equinoxes  among  the  Germanics  in  their  pre- Roman  time;  that  philology 
and  folklore,  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  the  history  of  agri- 
culture all  point  to  a  three-fold  partition  of  the  year  with  the  beginning 
about  the  middle  of  November.  It  was  Jacob  Grimm's  way  to  regard 
our  ancient  ancestors  as  speculative  philosophers  who  stood  aloof  from  the 


72 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


Struggle  for  existence,  and  who  shaped  their  yearly  course  according  to 
their  own  fancies  and  their  belief  in  gods;  and  he  failed  to  see  that  it  is 
the  economic  conditions  which,  in  primeval  times,  as  they  do  in  our  own, 
fixed  all  the  more  important  features  of  daily  and  yearly  life,  leaving  only 
a  very  limited  realm  to  a  manifestation  of  personal  likes  and  dislikes;  nay, 
that  that  realm  gets  smaller  and  smaller  every  step  we  go  further  back 
into  the  past. 

Jacob  Grimm  was  a  king  in  his  kingdom  of  Germanic  philology,  and 
even  where  he  stumbled  on  his  royal  road,  he  could  not  help  indicating 
the  way  to  walk  safely.  But  what  about  those  who  followed  his  route? 
Was  it  not  strange  that  they  should  think  his  stumbles  worthy,  above 
all,  of  imitation,  that  they  should  altogether  neglect  his  useful  hints  and 
the  material  gathered  by  him  which  pointed  in  the  right  direction?  It 
looks  like  a  joke  in  the  history  of  Germanic  antiquarian  studies,  that  the 
man  who  after  Grimm  made  this  subject  his  special  study,  and  devoted 
years  to  it,  should  have  wasted  all  his  energy  in  the  attempt  to  prove  that 
the  Germanics  in  pre-Roman  times  had  exactly  the  same  year  as  the 
Romans;  that  they,  therefore,  had  nothing  to  get  from  them,  and  rejoiced 
in  quartering  their  year  and  celebrating  imaginary  solstices  and  equinoxes.^ 

The  observation  of  the  change  of  cold  in  winter  and  heat  in  summer 
is  one  thing,  that  of  the  movement  of  the  rising-point  of  the  sun  on  the 
horizon  is  another.  If  some  peoples  of  antiquity  sought  to  find  a  causal 
connection  between  the  two  things,  that  connection  was  hopelessly  wrong, 
the  proper  relation  of  the  two  lines  of  observation  having  been  known 
only  since  Copernicus,  i.e.,  since  the  sixteenth  century.  That  primitive 
people  were  bound  to  connect  them  is  by  no  means  true,  and  it  is  more 
than  doubtful  whether  the  next  thing  would  be  to  observe  so-called  solstices 
and  equinoxes.  The  fixing  of  the  date  at  which  day  and  night  are  exactly 
equal  lacks  entirely  in  economic  interest  and  significance,  and  certainly 
never  affected  the  minds  of  primitive  peoples.     The  observation  of  so-called 


^  So  even  Heino  Pfannenschmid  seems  to  think  when  he  explains  his  theory  of  the 
Germanic  year  in  his  otherwise  excellent  book  on  Germanische  Erntefeste  im  heidnischen 
und  christlichen  Culttis  (Hannover,  1878,  pp.  16  ss.  and  326  ss). 


SOLSTICES  AND   EQUINOXES  73 

solstices,  on  the  other  hand,  is  extremely  difficult.  Whilst  in  autumn  and 
spring  the  rising-point  of  the  sun  visibly  shifts  from  day  to  day,  it  scarcely 
shifts  at  all  from  the  beginning  of  December  to  the  middle  of  January, 
and  from  the  beginning  of  June  to  the  middle  of  July.  Even  the 
astronomers  whom  Caesar  had  at  his  disposal  were  not  able  to  fix  the 
solstices  and  equinox^^;  actually ;  and  although  he  ordered  the  winter  sol- 
stice to  take  place  icember  25,  and  the  summer  solstice  on  June  24, 
they  persistently  and  obstinately  disobeyed — the  winter  solstice  making  a 
point  of  taking  place  on  December  23,  a.d.  i  ;  on  December  22,  a.d.  ioi; 
on  December  21,  a.d.  201;  on  December  20,  a.d.  301;  on  December  19, 
A.D.  401;  on  December  18,  a.d.  601;  on  December  17,  a.d.  801;  and  so 
on;  so  that  in  1501  it  was  wicked  enough  to  take  place  on  December  12. 
The  spring  equinox  and  autumnal  equinox  apparently  shared  the  delight 
in  moving  backward  by  eighteen  hours  a  century,  and  shifted  in  the  same 
degree  away  from  March  21  and  September  22. 

It  was  not  earlier  than  at  their  close  contact  with  the  Romans  that  the 
Germanics  became  acquainted  (as  with  other  Roman  institutions)  with  sol- 
stices and  equinoxes,^  although  not  with  their  true  astronomical  dates,  but 
with  the  pseudo-equinoxes  and  solstices  of  the  Julian  calendar,  to  which 
their  wise  men  faithfully  stuck  for  a  millenium,  whilst  popular  tradition 
knew  nothing  of  these  foreign-made  goods.  Nevertheless  these  innovations 
brought  the  ancient  Germanics  face  to  face  with  a  task  which  may  be 
called  philological.  They  were  compelled  to  create  new  words  for  the 
new  conceptions  with  which  they  were  made  familiar,  and  they  chose  the 
simplest  way  that  offered,  by  merely  translating  the  Latin  terms.  But  not 
all  tribes  fulfilling  that  task  in  the  same  way,  there  arose  considerable 
divergence  in  the  expressions  used,  fror'i  which  divergence  even  now  we 
can  see  that  the  Germanics  had  no  ancient  common  word  for  them,  such 
as  they  had  for  winter  and  summer.  Nay,  they  even  took  over  the 
particular  limitations  with  which  the  Latin  expression  solsticium  was  used. 
Solsticium  is  in  Latin,  with  a  few  late  exceptions,  exclusively  used  for   the 

^  Kuhn's  article  in  Zacher's  Zeitschrift  fur  deutsche  Philologie,  1868,  I.,  118,  is  not  to 
be  taken  seriously,  at  least  so  far  as  the  Germanics  are  concerned.  He  fails  to  give  any 
proof  for  their  knowledge  of  a  solar  year  with  solstices  and  equinoxes. 


74  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

summer  solstice.  How  well  aware  the  Roman  mind  was  of  that  appears 
from  the  fact  that  the  adjective  solsticialis  refers,  even  in  late  Latin, 
exclusively  to  summer  and  the  middle  of  it,  and  is  used  as  the  contrary 
of  brumalis.  The  name  for  the  shortest  day  of  the  year  was  simply  bruma 
(supposed  to  be  a  contraction  of  brevissima  \dies\)^  which  also  meant  the 
whole  of  winter.  Germany  herself  has  evolved  four  words  for  solstice,  all 
four  of  which  apply  to  the  summer  solstice  alone :  sunwende,  sungiht^ 
sunstede,  and  sommertag.  Grotefend,^  who  maintains  that  by  sohticium 
without  an  additional  qualification  the  summer  solstice  is,  in  most  cases, 
meant,  is  unable  to  give  even  a  single  instance  from  a  medieval  document 
in  which  a  winter  solstice  occurs,  and  (although  he  heads  his  paragraph 
Sohticium  estivale,  brumale)  gives  examples  solely  of  sohticium  estivale.  In 
another  paragraph,  however,^  he  quite  properly  remarks  that  the  whole  of 
the  following  expressions :  sonnwenden,  sonnabenden,  sonnenbenttag,  sunn- 
benden,  sunnewenttag,  sunibentag,  sunwende,  sunnstede,  sungichten,  sungicht, 
suniich,  apply  to  the  summer  solstice  alone.  This  amounts  to  the  fact, 
that  no  medieval  instance  is  known  of  December  25,  or  any  of  the  days 
about  it,  having  ever  been  called  solstice  in  the  German  language :  nay, 
that  there  is  no  medieval  word  wintersonnwende  or  the  like,  the  corre- 
sponding term  in  New-High-German  being  of  quite  modern  growth. 
Wherever  the  word  sunnewende  occurs  in  the  Middle-High-German  poetry 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  can  apply 
to  the  summer  solstice  solely.  No  poet  or  writer  of  prose  thinks  of  adding 
any  adjective  to  make  that  clear.^  Sonnenwende  is  turning  of  the  sun ; 
sungicht  is  walk  of  the  sun ;  and  sunstede  is  standing  of  the  sun — three 
quite  different  things.  These  terms  do  not  occur  all  over  Germany,  but 
are  restricted  to  several  dialects.     So  sunstede  is  exclusively  Frisian,  at  least 


^ Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,   1891,   I.,  p.   178. 

"^ Zeitrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,  I.,  p.  181. 

^"Hiute  ist  der  ahte  tac  nach  sunewenden,"  Iwein,  114;  "ze  einen  sunewenden, " 
Nibelungenlied,  32,  4,  and  Lachmann's  Nibelungen  Not,  2023,  i  ;  "  vor  disen  sunwenden," 
Ibid.,  678,  3;  694,  3;  "zen  nsehsten  sunwenden,"  Ibid.,  1352,  4;  1424,  4;  IVigalois, 
1717;  "an  sunwenden  abend,"  Nibelungen  Not,  1754,  3;  "ze  sunewenden,"  Tristan,  5987  ; 
"Santjohans  sunewenden  tac,"  Ls.,  2,  708. 


SOLSTICES   AND  EQUINOXES  75 

as  far  as  the  continent  is  concerned,  for  it  also  occurs  in  Anglo-Saxon,  thus 
appearing  to  be  an  Anglo-Frisian  term.^  From  this  we  may  conclude  that 
the  Germanics  became  acquainted  with  the  Roman  summer  solstice  at  a 
time  when  the  Western  Germanics  had  already  separated  into  German* 
and  Anglo-Frisians,  but  beforeMhe;* community  of  speech  bgtw^^  Angles' 
and  Frisians  was  broken  uplpprtTiiis^  is  ♦the  more  likely,  as-^FrisianTTaiid 
English  have  in  common,  another,  word  > for  the  same  notion:  Fnsiaii 
sumerdey,  English  summer  night-f'  whilst  sommertag  for  solstice  is  sporadic  in 
German.  This  being  tfee  .sj9.te  of  matters  among  the  Western  Germanics, 
nobody  will  wondeni^jfe^^^he  -several  Northern  Germanic  tribes  evolved 
almost  each  a  nam&^|>^'eir  own.  How  could  it  have  been  otherwise,  since 
they  were  not^  acquainted^ wwith,  the.  summer  solstice^ juntil  after  they  had 
settled  in  the  several  parts  of  the  north!  Thus  Danish  hjj^s  Solhverv,  or 
throwing  of  the  sun^  from' which"  in" modern" "times -is  derived  Vintersolhvers- 
festen.  Norwegian,  likewise,"  has  So^kve^  a.nd  So/kver;j^ jyvith.  the  modern 
derivatives  Sommersolkve^t  and  Vinter solhverv.  But  Swedish  has  Solsta^tl^ 
with  the  modern  derivative  Vintersolstand,  and  Icelandic' has  61^/y/[)i/«r  witii 
the  modern  derivative    Vetrarsblstodur.  ■  ^J;.  >,/'..,    . 

In  German  the  word  sonnwende  (solstice),  thoughVflever  us§d  for  winter 
solstice,  is  sometimes  usfec^-  for  equinox^  so  that  Germany  can  boast  of 
having  three  solstices,  which  s,she  certainly  deserves  on  account  of  her 
ancient  three  seasons.^  In  FlarMjBrs  the  equinoxes  are  called  summer  day 
(March  17)  and  winter  day  (September  21),^  whilst  in  Frisian  and  English 


^  It  is  found,  e.g. ,  in  an  Anglo-Saxon  treatise  on  astjonomy  based  entirely  on  Beda's 
work,  De  Ratione  Temporum  :  Thomas  Wright,  Popular  Treatises  on  Scieiue  written 
during  the  Middle  Ages  in  Anglo-Saxon,  Anglo-Norman,  and  English,  London,  mdcccxli.. 
Historical  Society  of  Science  Publication,  pp.  8,  9:  "  Aestas  is  suincM^se  haefdh  sunn-stede; 
hiems  is  winter,  se  haefdh  otherne  sunn-stede."  '"^^  ,-, 

^Grotefend,  ZeUrechnung  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,  189 1,  I.,  p.   178. 

^"Sonnwende  der  ander  in  der  vasten,"  Groiekn^,  Zeitrechnung,  1891,  I.,  181. 
Grotefend  maintains  the  same  usage  to  have  existed  among  the  Frisians,  Ibid.,  I.,  189: 
"A  sunna  ewenda  bifara  sente  Liudgeris  dei"  (Richthofen,  Friesische  Rechtsquellen,  169); 
but  I  should  be  rather  inclined  to  think  that  we  have  there  to  do  with  Saturday  instead 
of  equinox. 

*  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  1 891,  I.,  p.   178. 


76  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

summer  day  means  summer  solstice.  In  Middle-High-German  the  literal 
translation  of  equinox  {ebennaht)  is  very  rare  and  very  late,  so  that  it 
almost  seems  to  have  been  borrowed  from  Frisian. ^  At  any  rate  it  never 
was  a  popular  date  or  an  early  term.  It  is  not  before  the  fifteenth 
century  that  the  equinox  is  used  for  dating  documents,  and  even  then  it 
is  supplemented  by  other  things.^  The  complicated  expression  Tag  und 
Nachtgletche,  which  bears  the  stamp  of  artificial  manufacture,  is  of  quite 
modern  origin.  Frisian  and  English  evolve  a  little  earlier  than  German 
their  common  term  for  equinox,  A.S.  evenniht  or  emnihie,^  Frisian  evennaht.^ 
Among  the  Northern  Germanics  the  term  is  exceedingly  rare  and  very 
late.  Modern  Icelandic  has  Jafn-dcegur  and  jafn-dcegri,  equal  days ;  Modern 
Danish  has  ^cEVudogn;  Modern  Norwegian  has  jaftidoegri,  jevndogn,  and 
jafnncetti. 

If  we  knew  nothing  about  the  actual  division  of  the  Germanic  year,  it 
would,  on  the  authority  of  these  philological  facts,  be  safe  to  assume  that 
the  ancient  Germanics  did  not  base  their  seasons  and  tides  on  solstices 
and  equinoxes.  There  was  once  a  theory  current  according  to  which 
everything — myth,  cult,  custom — was  traced  back  to  an  alleged  sun  worship 
or  observations  of  the  events  visible  in  the  sky,  such  as  the  rising  of  the 
sun,  the  hiding  of  the  sun  behind  clouds,  and  the  shifting  of  the  rising- 
point  of  the  sun  on  the  horizon.  But,  as  regards  Germanic  tribes,  that 
theory  is  so  little  applicable  as  to  make  it  quite  certain  that   among  our 


^ ' '  Der  onager,  in  dem  merzen  an  dem  funf  und  zweinzigisten  tage  so  luot  er  zwelfstunt 
unde  sam  ofte  in  der  naht,  davon  bekennet  man  sint,  daz  ebennaht  belouhtet  ir  sunne  unde 
waet  ir  wint,"  Karajan,  82,  26 ;  Mliller  und  Zarncke,  Mittelhochdeutsches  Worterbuch, 
Leipzig,  1863,  L,  301.  Ibid.,  "  Ebennahtec,  equinoxialis  obent-nehtig,"  Diefenbach, 
Glossen.,  109;  "  Equinoxium,  ebennachtig,"  lbid.\  " aequinoctium  ewennachtig,"  Mone, 
VI IL,  249. 

^"1402  als  equenoxium  was  umme  sunte  Gregorius  dge  nten"  (Magdeburger  Sc happen- 
chronik,  304),  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  1898,  II.,  2,   194. 

^Thomas  Wright,  Popular  Treatises  on  Science,  London,  1841,  pp.  8,  9,  "Ver  is 
lencten-tid,  seo  hsefdh  emnihte ;  autumnus  is  hserfest,  the  hsefdh  odhre  emnihte,"  Saxon 
Chronicle,  Laud  MS.,  E,  1048;  "to  hserfestes  emnihte,"  John  Earle,  Two  of  the  Saxon 
Chronicles  Parallel,  Oxford,   1865,  pp.  179,   180. 

*  Richthofen,  Friesische  Kechtsquellen,  390-392.  "Letera  evennaht"  is  the  September 
equinox,  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  54. 


SOLSTICES  AND  EQUINOXES  77 

ancestors  the  sun  was  no  deity.  We  have  not  only  absolutely  no  traces 
of  sun  worship  among  the  Germanic  nations,  but  even  in  historical  times 
the  sun  has  been  of  different  gender  in  different  Germanic  languages.  Nay, 
different  Germanic  tribes  even  had  different  words  for  sun,  which,  though 
coming  from  the  same  root,  were  formed  with  different  suffixes  (Gothic 
sunno,  fem.,  and  sunna,  masc. ;  German  Sonne,  fem. ;  English  sun,  masc. ; 
Gothic  sauil,  neut.;  Anglo-Saxon  sol;  Old  Scandinavian  sol).  As  to  deities, 
the  Germanics  seem  to  have  originally  had  one  god  only,  his  name  being 
*Tiwaz  (Greek  Zevs,  Latin  Dies-piter),  to  whom  in  common  Germanic  times 
another  was  added,  named  *Thonaraz,  whilst  North  Germany  still  later  pro- 
duced a  third,  *  Wodanaz,  who  in  the  Middle  Ages  immigrated  to  Scandinavia, 
but  never  won  the  adoration  of  the  High-German  tribes.  Besides,  there 
was  one  goddess,  called  Frija.  At  any  rate  we  may  affirm  that  at  the 
time  when,  probably  in  the  first  century  of  our  era,  the  Germans  took  over 
from  the  Romans  the  Phoenician  week  of  seven  days,  and  replaced  their 
names  by  German  terms  which  corresponded  exactly  to  the  Roman  terms, 
there  was  not  even  a  god  to  take  the  place  of  Saturnus. 

Whilst  the  summer  solstice  was  probably  taken  over  directly  from 
popular  Roman  tradition,  the  equinoxes  seem  to  have  become  familiar  to 
the  clerical  Germanic  mind  through  the  bearing  the  spring  equinox  had 
on  the  fixing  of  Easter,  the  more  so  because  violent  discussions  about  the 
proper  time  for  holding  Easter  were  going  on  for  several  centuries,  and 
most  seriously  affected  the  Anglican  Church.  It  is  in  connection  with  this 
controversy  that  we  get  our  first  information  about  our  ancestors'  ability  to 
find  the  term  of  the  spring  equinox.  Ceolfrid's  Letter  on  Easter  and  the 
Tonsure,  written  circa  a.d.  710,^  shows  that  about  that  time  the  capacity  to 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  III.,  289: 
'  *  Aequinoctium  autem,  juxta  sententiam  omnium  Orientalium,  et  maxima  Aegyptiorum, 
qui  prae  ceteris  doctoribus  calculandi  palmam  tenent,  duodecimo  kalendarium  Aprilium 
die  pro  venire  consuevit,  ut  etiam  ipsi  horologica  inspectione  probamus."  What  stress  was 
laid  by  the  Middle  Ages  on  the  coincidence  of  Christmas  and  the  winter  solstice  is  evident 
from  the  fact  that  the  keeping  up  of  that  coincidence  is  given  as  the  reason  for  the 
institution  of  the  leap  year.  Bracton's  Note  Book,  ed.  by  F.  W.  Maitland,  Vol.  III., 
London,  i887,  p.  301  (fol.  196):  "Sed  hoc  fit  propter  quandam  necessitatem  ad  evitandam 
illud  inconveniens,  quod  esset  intemperies  hiemalis  in  signis  aestivalibus,  et  quia  si  possit 


•jS  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

fix  the  date  of  the  equinoxes  by  observation  had  been  attained  in  Great 
Britain,  though  several  centuries  elapsed  after  their  first  acquaintance  with 
them  before  equinoxes  and  solstices  were  accepted  as  terms  quartering  a 
solar  year  of  365  days  and  a  quarter.  It  was  probably  not  before  the 
eleventh  century  that  this  took  place.  The  Anglo-Saxon  treatise  of 
astronomy,  which  is  entirely  based  on  Beda's  Z>e  Temporum  Ratione'^  and 
on  Roman  views,  calls  the  four  Roman  quarters  of  the  year,  which  are 
halved  by  solstices  and  equinoxes,  lencten-tid,  sumor,  hcerfest,  and  winter,  of 
which  lencten-tid,  by  its  very  name  a  compound  with  tide,  is  shown  to  be 
not  an  old  term. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  facts.  Professor  Weinhold  goes  on  talking  about 
Germanic  solstices  and  equinoxes  as  if  nothing  in  the  world  were  a  fact 
better  established.  After  having  wrongly  fixed  the  terms  of  the  dual  division 
of  the  year  at  the  end  of  September  and  of  March,  and  two  of  the  terms  of 
the  three-fold  partition  on  almost  the  same  days,  he  proceeds  ^  to  declare 
that  the  Germanics  halved  their  two  seasons,  summer  and  winter,  and 
thus  arrived,  absolutely  like  the  Romans,  at  four  seasons  (which,  however, 
were  no  longer  seasons,  but  broke  entirely  through  the  system  of  actual 
seasons).  In  his  fanciful  way  he  sets  down  the  following  bold  guesses :  ^ 
"  Midwinter  and  midsummer,  Christmas  and  the  feast  of  John  Baptist, 
according  to  ecclesiastical  denomination,  stand  out  in  the  German  year  as 
very  ancient  high  tides.  Through  the  standing  still  of  the  sun,  which, 
according  to  the  opinion  of  that  time,  stopped  in  turning  round  to  a  new 

contingere  quod  Natale  Domini  celebraretur  in  aestate  et  Nativitas  B.  Johannis  Bapt.  in 
hieme."  This  passage  was  in  all  probability  written  before  A.D.  1256  ;  Ilenrici  de  Bracton, 
De  Legibus  et  Consuetudinibus  Angliae,  Londini,  1640,  Lib.  V.,  2,  De  Essoniis,  fol.  SSQ*" : 
' '  Ille  vero  dies  excrescens  qui  non  est  computabilis,  ea  ratione  propter  necessitatem  ad 
vitandum  illud  inconveniens  ne  festum  Natalis  Domini  celebretur  in  aestate  et  Nativitas 
Sancti  Johannis  Baptistae  in  hieme,  quod  contingere  posset  infra  quingentos  vel  sexcentos 
annos,  et  etiam  ita  contingeret  intemperies  hiemalis  in  signis  aestivalibus. " 

^  Historical  Society  of  Science,  Popular  Treatises  on  Science  written  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  ed.  by  Thomas  Wright,  London,  1841,  pp.  8,  9:  "  Feower  tida  synd  ge-tealde  on 
anum  geare,  that  synd,  ver,  sestas,  autumnus,  hiems.  Ver  is  lencten-tid,  seo  hsefdh 
emnihte ;  sestas  is  sumor,  se  hsefdh  sunn-stede ;  autumnus  is  hserfest,  the  hsefdh  odhre 
emnihte ;   hiems  is  winter,  se  hsefdh  otherne  sunnstede." 

^  Deutsche  Jahrteilung,  p.  9.  ^  Ibid,,  p.  9. 


SOLSTICES   AND   EQUINOXES  79 

journey,  the  people  felt  themselves  driven  to  solemn  rest  and  the  service 
of  the  deity  of  the  sky  which  led  the  sun.  Divination  and  prophecy  pre- 
vailed during  those  tides,  and  with  their  mysterious  thrill  interrupted  the 
noisy  joy  which  wreathed  round  heathen  sacrifices."  Yet  there  is  not  a 
shadow  of  historical  evidence  for  these  fancies.  The  Germanics  neither 
had  a  festival  about  Christmas  nor  about  the  day  of  John  Baptist.  The 
Twelve-nights,  of  which  he  talks  a  little  further  on,  are  simply  the  Dode- 
kahemeron  of  the  old  Church,  which  existed  there  for  centuries  before  they 
appeared  among  any  Germanic  tribe.^  Nay,  all  through  the  Middle  Ages 
the  term  Sonnenwende,  or  solstice,  has  not  a  single  time  been  shown  to 
have  been  applied  to  December  25  :  its  use  is  absolutely  restricted  to 
June  24,  just  as  the  word  solsticium  was  among  the  Romans.  If  Wein- 
hold^  places  the  Anglo-Saxon  word  lidha  for  June  and  July  alongside  the 
Dutch  lauwe,  louwmcent  for  January,  explains  them  as  lind  and  lau,  trans- 
forms these  meanings  to  "resting,"  and  refers  that  adjective  to  the  "rest 
of  the  sun,"  which,  according  to  popular  belief,  i.e.,  according  to  his  belief, 
took  place  about  midwinter  and  midsummer,  one  may  well  be  doubtful 
whether  that  serves  to  strengthen  the  position  of  his  own  hypothesis.  The 
goddesses  Ostara  and  Hreda,  on  whom  he^  lays  much  stress,  he  has  later 
given  up  himself.  But  he  still  deduces  from  the  facts  that  the  Scandinavians 
divided  their  year  by  October  9  to  14  and  April  9  to  14  {vetrnatt  and 
sumarndti),  and  that  the  Germans  are  shown  to  have  had  the  Roman 
seasons,  one  of  which  began  about  October  i,  the  conclusion  that  equi- 
noxes, of  which  the  Germanics  knew  absolutely  nothing,  "divided  the  most 
ancient  German  year."* 

In  his  Weihnacht-Spiele  und  Lieder  aus  Siiddeutschland  und  Schlesien  ^ 
there  is  even  a  chapter  headed  in  the  index  as  "The  Germanico-heathen 
celebration  of  the  winter  solstice,"  in  which  he  gives  a  still  more  enraptur- 
ing delineation  of  that  alleged  Germanic  festival,  without  being  in  the  least 
disturbed  by   the  fact  that  such  a  thing  never  existed.      There  even  the 

^Compare  my  own  book  Geschichte  der  deutschen   Weihnacht,  Leipzig,  1893,  P-  282. 

^  Deutsche  Jahrteilung,  p.  14. 

^Weinhold,  Deutsche  Jahrteilung,  1862,  p.   15.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  6. 

*Wien,   1875,  pp.  4,  ss. 


8o  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

error  occurs,  that  the  solstice  had  been  called  Jul,  accompanied  by  another, 
that  the,  winter  solstice  was  the  beginning  of  the  Germanic  year.  We  learn 
that  that  time  was  devoted  to  Wodan,  and  Fricke,  or  Holda,  or  Berchta 
or  Hera,  or  Gode;  that  the  boar  {bar)  led  about  through  the  village  was 
not  a  boar  at  all,  but  a  bear;  that  it  was  not  the  central  figure  of  the  pro- 
cession, but  probably  merely  accidental :  and  we  have  a  hundred  other 
products  of  unscientific  imagination.  The  description  given  of  the  holy 
Twelve-nights  of  the  Germanics  ^  is  almost  touching.  That  the  Christmas 
fires  have  a  close  relation  to  the  sun ;  that  yule  has  etymologically  to  do 
with  wheel',  that  the  Christmas  tree  is  to  be  derived  from  Wodan;  that  a 
great  number  of  the  customs  in  use  from  Martinmas  to  Easter  should 
properly  be  held  on  Christmas  eve,  or,  at  least,  on  the  Twelve-nights;  these 
and  an  extensive  list  of  other  most  surprising  fancies  can  be  learned  from 
that  book.  So  the  whole  of  the  thirty-six  pages  which  Professor  Weinhold's 
disciple.  Dr.  Ulrich  Jahn,  in  his  book  Die  deutschen  Opfergebrduche  bet 
Ackerbau  und  Viehzucht,'^  devotes  to  the  offerings  about  the  time  of  the 
winter  solstice,  contain,  in  so  far  as  they  are  meant  to  apply  to  pre- 
Christian  times,  nothing  but  unhistorical  speculations,  and  would  have  been 
better  omitted  from  that  book,  which,  in  various  respects,  may  be  called 
useful,  and  certainly  represents  a  much  more  critical  attitude  on  the  part 
of  its  author  than  any  of  the  attempts  of  Professor  Weinhold  to  deal  with 
the  problems  of  German  popular  tradition. 

^  Given  Wien,  1875,  P-   ^^'  ^  Breslau,   1884,  pp.  253-289. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE   CALENDS   OF  JANUARY. 


In  the  first  century  before  Christ  a  number  of  Germanic  tribes,  through  ^ 
commerce  and  war,  came  into  close  contact  with  the  Romans,  taking  over 
from  them  in  rapid  succession  the  Roman  capital  alphabet  of  Egyptian 
origin  to  turn  it  into  their  runes,  the  Phoenicio-Roman  week,  the  pre-Julian 
calendar  with  its  beginning  of  the  year  on  March  i,  some  astronomical 
wisdom,  and  a  variety  of  other  things.  They  took  over  the  institution  of 
the  ancient  Roman  leap  year  with  its  intercalary  month,  ^  although  they 
did  not  add  this  mensis  Mercidonius  every  second  year  between  February  23 
and  24,  but  about  the  middle  of  summer  and  at  intervals  which  we  do  not 
know.  This  intercalary  period  of  apparently  about  thirty  days  was  the 
first  thing  to  interfere  with  the  congruity  of  the  German  year,  which,  so 
far,  had  known  only  tides  of  sixty  days,  but  had  not  taken  account  of 
lunar  periods  for  the  purpose  of  dividing  time,  however  conscientiously 
they  might  observe  them  as  bringing  good  or  bad  luck  to  the  affairs  of 
daily  life.  Tacitus  ^  keeps  that  usage  quite  distinct  from  the  Germanic 
division   of  the   year.      So   it   continued    for    at    least    three-quarters   of  a 


^We  know  this  from  Beda,  De  Temporum  Ratione,  chap,  xv.,  who  expressly  testifies 
to  the  existence  of  an  intercalary  month  among  the  ancient  Angles. 

"^  Germania,  chap.  xi. :  "Coeunt  nisi  quid  fortuitum  et  subitum  incidit,  certis  diebus,  cum 
aut  inchoatur  luna  aut  impletur ;  nam  agendis  rebus  hoc  auspicatissimum  initium  credunt." 

F 


82  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

millennium.^  The  introduction  of  Roman  months  instead  of  tides  of  about 
sixty  days  necessarily  led  to  a  breaking-up  of  the  latter  into  two  parts  of 
equal  length,  for  which  new  names  were  required.  The  fact  that  the  six 
Germanic  tides,  which  formed  the  course  of  a  year,  began  about  the  middle 
of  the  Roman  months  made  things  a  little  difificult.  Yet  the  Roman  month- 
names  were  taken  over  and  bye  and  bye  replaced  by  new  German  terms, 
which  were  formed  by  means  of  a  word  probably  identical  with  Germanic 
moon,  mdnodh  (Gothic  menoths,  Old  Saxon  monadh).  It  is,  however,  doubtful 
whether  Latin  mensis  is  exactly  of  the  same  derivation.  Similarly,  the  relation 
of  the  root  of  moon  to  Sanskrit  ma,  to  measure  (Greek  /xerpov),  is  disputed 
with  good  reason.  The  moon  was,  among  the  Aryans  and  among  the 
Germanics  in  particular,  anything  but  the  medium  for  dividing  the  course 
of  the  year,  for  which  they  received,  at  a  very  early  date,  a  ready-made 
theory  of  probably  Egyptian  origin.  The  word  manodh  was  added  to  each 
of  the  sections  in  order  to  mark  them  clearly  out  from  the  old  three-score-day 
tides,  the  names  of  which  were  used  for  forming  the  new  compounds.  So 
the  old  liuleis  tide  of  sixty  days  at  the  beginning  of  winter  was  divided 
into  a  first  liuleis  month  and  a  second  liuleis  month,  the  Lida  tide  in 
summer  into  a  first  Lida  month  and  a  second  Lida  month,  to  which,  in 
intercalary  years,  a  third  Lida  month  was  appended,  whilst  the  words 
Liuleis,  Lida,  etc.,  without  any  addition,  continued  to  mean  a  tide  of  about 
sixty  days,  two  of  which  formed  a  Germanic  season  of  a  long  hundred  of 
days.  Only  gradually  self-dependent  names  were  developed  for  these  half- 
tides  which  were  denoted  months,  most  of  these  names  being  taken  from 
economic  life,  which  naturally  varied  considerably  between  the  coasts  of 
the  Baltic  and  the  south  of  France,  and  from  the  British  Isles  down  to 
the  coasts  of  the  Adriatic,^  and  remained  an  ever  new  source  of  name- 
giving,  especially  during  the  time  of  transition  from  prevalent  pasture  to 

'^ Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1 714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1686,  Concilium  Quinisextum  sive 
in  Trullo,  A.D.  706,  Ixv. :  "Qui  in  noviluniis  a  quibusdam  ante  suas  officinas  et  demos 
accenduntur  rogos,  supra  quos  etiam  antiqua  quadam  consuetudine  salire  inepte  ac  delire 
Solent,  iubemus  deinceps  cessare.  Quisquis  ergo  tale  quid  fecerit,  si  sit  quidem  clericus, 
deponatur :    sin  autem  laicus,  segregetur. " 

'^  Weinhold,  Die  deutscken  Monatnamen,  Halle,   1869,  pp.  24-28. 


THE  CALENDS   OF  JANUARY  83 

prevalent  agriculture.  The  inexhaustible  variety  of  circumstances  which  led 
to  names  for  these  new  half-tides  made  impossible  the  development  of  one 
and  the  same  series  of  home-made  month-names  for  all  Germanic  tribes,  or 
even  for  each  of  the  principal  groups  of  them ;  nay,  for  individual  tribes. 
The  several  hundreds  of  Germanic  month-names  found  on  Germanic  territory 
from  the  sixth  century  down  to  the  present  time,  with  their  innumerable 
variations  of  meaning,  make  impossible  of  attainment  a  system  which  would 
embrace  them  all. 

In  the  year  of  Rome  707,  />.,  forty-five  years  before  the  date  from^^ 
which  later  the  Christian  era  was  counted,  the  Julian  calendar  began  to 
reign  in  Italy  and  Gaul,  and  on  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  in  general. 
Within  the  hundred  and  fifty  years  which  followed,  Roman  legions  and 
Roman  administration  carried  it  over  the  Rhine  into  Germany,  and  beyond 
the  channel  into  the  British  Isles.  As  long  as  Gaul  remained  a  Roman 
province  entirely  Romanized;  as  long  as  down  the  banks  of  the  Rhine 
there  flourished  large  Roman  towns;  as  long  as  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Germans  served  in  Roman  armies,  visiting  Italy,  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  Egypt, 
fighting  all  over  the  world  then  known,  and  more  than  once  disposing  of 
the  Roman  imperial  throne ;  as  long  as  invading  Goths  went  down  to  Italy 
and  Vandilian  invaders  to  the  north  of  Africa  without  losing  contact  with 
those  Germanic  tribes  which  remained  northward  of  the  Alps — there  was 
practically  no  limit  to  the  entry  of  Roman  knowledge  into  Germanic  terri- 
tory; and  in  the  suite  of  every-day  experience  there  came  Roman  learning 
with  its  poets,  historians,  philosophers,  rhetoricians,  scientists,  and  physicians. 
All  along  the  Rhine  there  flourished  Roman  rhetoric  schools  in  consider- 
able number,  in  which  the  noble  science  of  grammar  and  the  trivium  as 
well  as  the  quadrivium  were  taught  thoroughly.  Among  the  Germanics 
there  was  no  self-dependent  scholarship  that  could  successfully  compete 
with  those  finest  products  of  a  higher  civilization,  and  so  it  became, 
for  about  a  thousand  years,  the  task  of  the  Germanics  to  receive  and 
ever  receive  mental  gifts  from  the  civilization  of  the  empire  they 
destroyed. 

In  the  suite  of  the  new  calendar  which,  after  Julius  Caesar,  began  the 
year  with  the  Calends  of  January  (at  which  date,  subsequently  to  153  B.C., 


84  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

the  Roman  consuls  had  entered  their  offices),  the  whole  annual  course  of 
Roman  festivals  passed  by  degrees  to  Gaul,  Germany,  and  the  south  of 
Great  Britain;  above  all,  the  Saturnalia,  Brumalia,  and  Kalendae  Januartae, 
which,  during  the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era,  were  with  great  regularity 
observed  in  all  the  great  towns  along  the  Rhine,  and  thence  spread  to  the 
inner  parts  of  Germany,  as  far  as  Bohemia;  nay,  even  to  the  Slave  tribes 
east  of  the  Germans,  and  to  the  Lithuanians  north  of  them.^ 

Since  even  Professor  Weinhold  admits  that  the  Roman  calendar  was 
one  of  the  three  forces  which  shaped  the  medieval  German  calendar,^  it 
will  be  worth  while  to  see  of  what  kind  the  Roman  customs  were  which 
could  be  transferred  to  Germany  along  with  the  institution  of  the  Calends 
of  January  and  the  neighbouring  festivals.  There  was  first  of  all  the 
custom  of  New-Year's  gifts  or  Strenae.^  In  imperial  Rome  the  people 
and  the  Senate  were  expected  to  present  New- Year's  gifts  to  the  emperors,* 
it  being  related  that  Augustus  had  had  a  nocturnal  vision  requiring 
that  people  should  annually,  on  a  certain  day,  present  money  to  him, 
which  he  received  with  a  hollow  hand.^  During  his  reign  they  were 
given   on   the   Capitol;    but   CaHgula   was   so    lost   to   a   sense   of  shame, 

^  The  Lithuanians,  according  to  the  old  significance  of  their  winter  festival,  called  many 
centuries  later  their  Christmas  Kalledos,  a  name  which  has  wrongly  been  brought  into 
connection  with  Lithuanian  Kalada,  log  (Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  4th  ed.,  p.  522), 
but  is  certain  to  have  sprung  from  Calendae,  since  the  Czechic  word  for  Christmas  is  up 
till  to-day  Koleda  (Polish  Kolenda,  Russian  Koljada) ;  a  fifteenth  century  source  calling 
Bohemian  Christmas  processions  calendisatiotus  (Usener,  Christlicher  Fest branch,  Bonn, 
1889 ;  Johannes  von  Holleschau's  Treatise  on  Christmas),  and  a  verb  colendisare  appear- 
ing in  old  sources  of  Bohemian  law  (Rossler,  Prager  Recht,  p.  95,  No.  140).  Compare 
my  own  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Weihnacht,  Leipzig,  1893,  p.  287,  note  to  p.  14,^,  where 
the  quotations  from  Holleschau's  treatise  are  given. 

"^  Uber  deutsche  Jahrteilung,  Kiel,   1862,  p.  3. 

^  The  habit  of  New-Year's  presents  boni  ominis  causa  is  first  mentioned  by  Plautus 
(+  184  B.C.)  in  his  Stichus,  iii.  2,  6  ;  v.  2,  24.  Their  purpose  is  explained  by  Ovid,  Fasti,  i. 
187.  Cakes  and  fruits  were  the  principal  gifts  (Martialis,  viii.  33;  xiii.  37;  Seneca, 
Epistulae,  Ixxxvii.).  It  seems  to  have  been  under  Augustus  that  money  took  the  place 
of  these  eatables.  The  custom  still  prevailed  about  A.D.  400  under  the  Emperors  Arcadius 
and  Honorius. 

*  Suetonius,  in  Augustus,  chap.  Ivii. ;  in  Tiberius,  chap,  xxxiv. ;  in  Caligula,  chap.  xlii. 
Compare  Preller,  Roniische  Mythologie,  p.    161. 

^"Cavam  manum  asses  porrigentibus  praebens,"  Ibid.,  in  Augustus,  chap.  xci. 


THE  CALENDS  OF  JANUARY  85 

as  to  publish  an  edict  expressly  requiring  such  gifts,  and  to  stand  in 
the  porch  of  the  palace,  on  the  Calends  of  January,  in  order  to 
receive  those  which  people  of  all  descriptions  brought  to  him.^  It  was 
reckoned  a  handsome  enough  way  of  receiving  gifts,  when  the  bosom- 
fold  of  the  cloak  was  expanded;  but  when  they  were  received  with 
both  hands  hollow,^  or  in  "goupins,"  to  use  the  Scotch  word,  it  was 
accounted  objectionable.  Hence  rapine  was  proverbially  expressed  in 
that  manner.^ 

But  the  celebration  of  the  Calends  of  January  was  by  no  means  the 
only  festivity  of  that  time  of  the  year  in  ancient  Rome ;  there  was  a  whole 
series  of  festivals,  so  that  Seneca  (  +  a.d.  39)  could  write  to  his  friend 
Lucilius :  "  It  is  now  the  month  of  December,  when  the  greatest  part  of 
the  city  is  in  a  bustle.  Loose  reins  are  given  to  public  dissipation;  every- 
where may  you  hear  the  sound  of  great  preparations,  as  if  there  were  some 
real  difference  between  the  days  dedicated  to  Saturn  and  those  for  transact- 
ing business.  Thus,  I  am  disposed  to  think,  that  he  was  not  far  from  the 
truth  who  said  that  anciently  it  was  the  month  of  December,  but  now  the 
year.  Were  you  here,  I  would  willingly  confer  with  you  as  to  the  plan  of 
our  conduct ;  whether  we  should  live  in  our  usual  way,  or,  to  avoid  singu- 
larity, both  take  a  better  supper  and  throw  off  the  toga.  For  what  was 
not  wont  to  be  done,  except  in  a  tumult  or  during  some  public  calamity 
to  the  city,  is  now  done  for  the  sake  of  pleasure,  and  from  regard  to  the 
festival  Men  change  their  dress.  It  were  certainly  far  better  to  be  thrifty 
and  sober  amidst  a  drunken  crowd,  disgorging  what  they  had  recently 
swallowed."  * 

These  festivals  were  the  Saturnalia,  ^dth  their  equality  between  rich 
and  poor,  freemen  and  slaves,  and  their  presents  of  all  descriptions,^  lasting 
from  December  17  to  December  19;  or  seven  days,  from  December  17  to 

^  Suetonius,  in  Caligula,  chap.  xlii. 

^  "  Utraque  manu  cavata." 

^  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  Lib.  XVI. ;   Rosin,  AntiquUates,  p.  29. 

*  Seneca,  Epistulae,  xviii.  ;  Jamieson,  Etym.  Diet,  of  Scot.  Lang.,  "Yule,"  IV. 

^  "  Cereos  Satumalibus  muneri  dabant  humiliores  potentioribus,  quia  candelis  pauperes, 
locupletes  cereis  utebantur,"  Festus  Pompeius,  Lib.  III.  The  new  year's  gift  was  called 
Kaletidaticum.      Ducange,   Glossarium,  explains   "  Kalendaticum  praestatio  quae  Januarii 


86  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

^ 
December  23.     All  labour  rested,  and,  under  the  call  lo  Saturnalia!  lo 
Saturnalia  I  people   gave   themselves   to   a   wild  joy.      Then  followed  the 
Brumalia,  fixed  by  Caesar  erroneously  on  December  25,  the  alleged  shortest   \ 
day  of  the  year,  called  since  that  time  occasionally  Dies  Invicti  Solis,  day    j 
of  the   unconquered   sun.      The   character   of   Saturnalia,    Brumalia,    and   | 
Kalendae  Januariae   was  very  wild  and  lascivious,   so   wild   that,    together 
with  the  Matronalia  of  the  first  of  March  (and  sometimes  with  the  Septi- 
montium,  the  feast  of  incorporation  of  the  seven  hills  with  the  city  of  Rome, 
also  celebrated  in   December),  they  were,  by  the  fathers  of  the  Christian 
Church,  regarded   as   a  perfect   essence   of  heathendom,  which  was  by  no 
means  meant  to  be  a  compHment.      So  Tertullian  (  +  a.d.  220)  could  say: 
"By  us  who  are  strangers  to  sabbaths  and  new  moons,   once   acceptable 
to   God,    the  Saturnalia,  and   the   feasts   of  January,   and   Brumalia,   and 
Matronalia,  are   frequented;    gifts   are   sent   hither  and   thither;    there    is  i 
the   noise   of  the    Strenae,    and   of  games   and   feasting.      O !    better   faith  ; 
of  the  nations  in  their  own  religions,  which  adopts   no   solemnity  of  the 
Christians."^ 

Kalendis  iiebat."  Charta  Rogerii  Siciliae  Regis  an.  I137,  apud  Falconem  Beneventantim, 
p.  315:  "Angarias,  terraticum,  herbaticum,  carnaticum,  kalendaticum,  vinum,  olivas, 
relevum,  etc.  KaXaj'5t(c6»'  in  Justiniani  edicto  xiii."  In  England,  as  late  as  the  thirteenth 
century,  the  custom  of  benevolences  exacted  by  kings  was  connected  with  the  Roman 
Calends  custom  :  "  Rex  autem  Regalis  magnificentiae  terminos  impudenter  transgrediens,  a 
civibus  Londinensibus,  quos  novit  ditiores,  die  Circumcisionis  Dominicae,  a  quolibet  exegit 
singulatim  primitiva,  quae  vulgares  nova  dona  novi  anni  superstitiose  solent  appellare." 
The  king  is  Henry  III.,  A.D.  1249  (Matthaei  Paris,  Monachi  Albanensis  Angli,  Historia 
Major,  London,  1640,  p.  757,  under  the  year  1249).  Matthew  Paris  goes  on  to  say: 
"Veruntamen  festo  beati  Aeduwardi,  quod  est  in  vigilia  Epiphaniae,  appropinquante, 
vocavit  dominus  Rex  per  literas  suas  copiosam  Magnatum  multitudinem  :  ut  simul  cum  eo, 
qui  in  vigilia  sancti,  videlicet  die  Lunae  in  pane  et  aqua  et  in  veslibus  laneis  jejunaverant, 
prout  de  more  solet,  ipsum  festum  magnifice  celebrarent  in  ecclesia  S.  Petri  apud  West- 
monasterium. " 

^  Tertullian,  De  Idolatria,  chap.  xiv.  These  sweetmeats,  called  by  the  name  of  Strenae, 
were  therefore  prohibited  by  the  early  church  (V.  Rosin,  Antiquitates,  p.  29).  The  Strenae 
are  traced  as  far  back  as  to  King  Tatius,  who  at  this  season  used  to  receive  branches  of 
a  happy  or  fortunate  tree  from  the  grove  of  Streniae  as  favourable  omens  with  respect 
to  the  new  year.  In  another  passage  {De  Idolatria,  chap.  x. )  Tertullian  says:  "Saturn- 
alia, strenae  captandae,  et  septimontium,  et  brumae,  et  carae  cognationis  honoraria  exigenda 
omnia."     Compare  also  Tertullian's  De  Fuga  in  Persecutione,  chap.  xiii. 


f 


THE  CALENDS  OF  JANUARY  87 

With  the  introduction  of  the  Julian  calendar  all  kinds  of  southern 
Calends  rights  found  entrance  to  the  Germanics  :  the  making  of  processions  j 
through  the  streets  and  singing  of  songs,  the  lighting  of  candles  and  lamps, 
the  adorning  of  their  houses  with  laurel  and  green  trees,  the  giving  of 
presents,  men  dressing  up  in  women's  garments,  masquerades  in  the  hides 
of  animals,  and  the  erection  of  a  table  of  fortune  for  the  good  luck  of 
the  new  year.^ 

Half  a  century  before  the  beginning  of  our  era  the  first  Roman  legion 
had  entered  Great  Britain,  and  not  much  later  British  soil  was  in  constant 
occupation  by  Roman  legions.  The  great  mass  of  Roman  inscriptions  found 
in  Britain  gives  ample  evidence  as  to  their  sojourn  there.  It  is  not 
astonishing  that  among  these  we  find  one  devoted  to  the  "God  The 
Unconquered  Sun  "  {Deus  Invictus  Sol),  ^  which  further  supports  the  general 
assumption  that  these  legions  did  not  only  celebrate  the  Calends  of 
January,  but  the  Brumalia  as  well,  and  a  fortiori  the  Saturnalia.  The 
exact  date  when  the  Roman  legions  were  withdrawn  from  Great  Britain 
is  not  known,  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  Roman  civilization  and  Roman 
religious  tradition  survived  them  there,  so  that  when  Augustine  and  his 
Roman  fellow-missionaries  of  Christianity  landed  in  Britain  (a.d.  592)  they 
found  there  December  25  as  a  day  marked  in  the  festive  calendar,  at  least 

^  Acta  Concilioruvi,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  365,  Conciliuin  Turonense,  II.,  A.D. 
567,  xxii. :  "  Enim  vero  quoniam  cognovimus  nonnuUos  inveniri  sequipedas  erroris  antiqui, 
qui  Kalendas  lanuarii  colunt  cum  lanus  homo  gentilis  fuerit :  rex  quidem,  sed  Deus  esse 
non  potuit."  And  eight  years  later:  "  Non  liceat  iniquas  observationes  agere  Kalendarum, 
et  otiis  vacare  gentilibus,  neque  lauro  aut  viriditate  arbonim  cingere  domos.  Omnis  haec 
obsevatior  paganismi  est."  (Caput  Ixxiii.  of  the  Capitula  Martini  Episcopi  Bracensis,  circa 
A.D.   575.)     Ibid.,  Vol.   III.,  col.  399. 

^ Alonutnenta  Historica  Britannica  in  the  chapter,  "Ex  Inscriptionibus  Excerpta  de 
Britannia,"  p.  116,  No.  103:  "Deo  Invicto  Soli  Soc  Sacrum  Pro  Salute  Et 
Incolumitate  Imp.  Caes.  M.  Aureli  Antonini  Pii  Felic.  Aug.  L.  Caecilius  Optatus  Trib. 
Coh.  I.  Vardul  Cum  Con*  braneis  Votum.  Deo  *  *  A  Solo  Extruct  *  *  *" 
(Riechester  or  Rochester,  Northumberland).  The  Inscriptions,  No.  102,  "  Deo  Invicto 
Herculi  Sacr.  L.  Aemil.  Salvianus  Trib.  Coh.  I.  Vangi  V.S.  P.M."  (Risingham, 
Northumberland),  and  No.  75,  "  Silvano  Invicto  Sacrum  C.  Tertius  Veturius  Micianus," 
etc.,  show,  however,  that  Invictus  was  a  rather  general  divine  predicate,  which  excludes 
the  possibility  of  interpreting  Inscription  No.  103  as  dedicated  to  the  sole  unconquered 
God,  taking  Wz  as  the  dative  singular  of  solus. 


88  VULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

of  the  south  of  England,  which  naturally  paved  the  way  for  a  celebration 
of  Christ's  Nativity  on  the  same  day. 

As  regards  the  continental  Germanics,  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century  there  existed  a  perfect  unity  of  popular  sacramental  usage 
as  to  the  Calends  of  January  between  them  and  the  Romans,  the  German 
Calends  rites  not  only  resembling  the  Roman  ones  absolutely,  but  even 
being  felt  to  be  identical  with  them  by  the  people  celebrating  them.  We 
know  this  from  an  incident  of  a.d.  742.  In  that  year,  Winfrid  (Bonifacius), 
the  "  apostle  of  the  Germans,"  in  a  letter  written  to  Pope  Zacharias,  com- 
plained of  a  strange  fact  which  hindered  his  getting  on  better  in  sowing 
the  gospel  in  the  souls  of  the  Alamanni,  Boioarii,  and  Franci.  For  when 
he  interdicted  them  from  certain  heathen  customs,  they  justified  themselves 
by  the  excuse  that  they  had  seen  similar  things  at  Rome,  close  to  St. 
Peter's  Church,  where  these  things  were  regarded  as  perfectly  permissible. 
And  they  told  Boniface  they  had  seen  that  every  year  on  the  eve  of  the 
Calends  of  January,  after  heathen  custom,  processions  went  through  the 
streets  singing  unchristian  songs  and  using  heathen  exclamations,  that 
people  erected  tables  of  fortune  and  kept  a  Calends  fire  from  which 
they  would  not  give  anything  away,  just  as  they  refused  to  lend  anything 
else  to  their  neighbours  during  that  time,  and  that  women  went  publicly 
about  wearing  amulets  round  arms  and  legs,  and  offered  them  to  others  for 
sale.  The  Pope  could  not  deny  that  such  things  actually  happened  in 
Rome;  but,  of  course,  declared  in  his  answer  to  Boniface  that  he  detested 
them,  as  all  Christians  should  do.^     In  the  next  year  he  brought  the  matter 


^ Acta  Concilionwi,  Parisiis,  17 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1880,  Epistola  Bonifacii  Episcopi 
ad  Zachariavi  Papam  (741-752):  V.  "Quia  carnales  homines  idiotae,  Alamanni,  vel 
Bajuarii,  vel  Franci,  si  juxta  Romanam  urbem  aliquid  fieri  viderint  ex  his  peccatis  quae 
nos  prohibemus,  licitum  et  concessum  a  sacerdotibus  esse  putant :  et  dum  nobis  impro- 
perium  deputant,  sibi  scandalum  vitae  accipiunt.  VI.  Sicut  affirmant  se  vidisse  annis 
singulis  in  Romana  urbe,  et  juxta  ecclesiam  sancti  Petri,  in  die  vel  nocte  quando  Kalendae 
lanuarii  intrant,  paganorum  consuetudine  c'horos  ducere  per  plateas,  et  acclamationes  ritu 
gentilium,  et  cantationes  sacrilegas  celebrare,  et  mensas  ilia  die  vel  nocte  dapibus  onerare, 
et  nullum  de  domo  sua  vel  ignem,  vel  ferramentum,  vel  aliquid  commodi  vicino  suo 
praestare  velle.  Dicunt  quoque  se  ibi  vidisse  mulieres  pagano  ritu  phylacteria  et  ligaturas 
in  brachiis  et  in  cruribus  ligatas  habere,  et  publice  ad  vendendum  venales  ad  comparandum 


THE  CALENDS  OF  JANUARY  89 

before  the  Synod  of  Rome,  which  promptly  interdicted  all  usages  of  that 
kind  at  the  Calends  of  January  and  Brumalia}  An  interdiction  which  was 
for  several  centuries  repeated  and  repeated  again,  was  in  the  form  of  a 
question  taken  over  into  all  more  important  Penitentials  of  the  Church, 
and  there  probably  lived  longer  than  the  usages  of  which  it  was  meant  to 
be  destructive.  The  question  was :  "  Didst  thou  observe  the  Calends  of 
January  after  heathen  custom,  so  as  to  lead  singers  and  choirs  through 
the  streets  and  open  places? "^ 

From  the  letter  by  Bonifacius  to  Pope  Zacharius  (741-752)  it  appears 
that,  according  to  Roman  custom,  the  fire  at  the  Calends  of  January  was 
regarded  as  holy,  and  custom  did  not  permit  anything  to  be  taken  away 
from  it.^  The  Calends  fire  was  an  entirely  private  affair,  not  kept  in  pubhc ; 
a  fire  on  the  hearth  of  the  home,  not  a  bonfire ;  whilst  all  Germanic  festive 
fires  are  bonfires  in  the  open  air. 


aliis  offerre.  Quae  omnia  eo  quod  ibi  a  carnalibus  et  insipientibus  videntur,  nobis  hie 
improperium  et  impedimentum  praedicationis  et  doctrinae  faciunt."  To  this  the  Pope 
replied  {Ibid.,  III.,  col.  1883,  vi.) :  "  De  Kalendis  vero  Januariis,  vel  ceteris  auguriis, 
vel  phylacteriis,  et'  incantationibus,  vel  aliis  diversis  observationibus,  quae  gentili  more 
observari  dixisti  apud  beatum  Petrum  apostolum,  vel  in  urbe  Roma ;  hoc  et  nobis,  et 
omnibus  Christianis  detestabile  et  perniciosum  esse  judicamus,"  etc.  The  Letters  are 
reprinted  in  Epistolae  Merowingici  et  Karolini  aevi,  L,  Berlin,  1892,  p.  301,  and  commented 
upon  by  Rudolf  Koegel,  Geschichte  der  detUschen  Literattir  bis  zum  Ausgang  des  Mittelalters, 
Strassburg,   1894,  p.  29,  though  Koegel  fails  to  recognize  their  proper  bearings. 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  IIL,  col.  1929,  Concilium  Romanum,  I., 
A.D.  743,  ix.:  "  Ut  nullus  Kalendas  Januarias  et  broma  colere  praesumpserit,  aut  mensas 
cum  dapibus  in  domibus  praeparare,  aut  per  vicos  et  plateas  cantationes  et  choros  ducere, 
quod  maxima  iniquitas  est  coram  Deo :  anathema  sit."  Compare  R.  Koegel,  Geschichte 
der  deutschen  Literattir,  I.  28. 

'^ "  Observasti  Calendas  lanuarias  ritu  paganorum  .  .  .  ita  ut  per  vicos  et  per  plateas 
cantores  et  choros  du ceres,"  Penitentiary  of  Burchard  von  Worms  (Friedberg,  Aus  deutschen 
Bussbiichern,  p.  84;    Rud.  Koegel,   Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literattir,   1894,  I.,  p.  29). 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1880,  Epistola  Bonifacii  Episcopi 
ad  Zachariam  Papam,  vi.,  where  it  is  said  of  the  Calends  of  January:  "  Et  nullum  de 
domo  suo  vel  ignem,  vel  ferramentum,  vel  aliquid  commodi  vicino  suo  praestare  velle." 
At  the  Saturnalia  candles  were  given  as  presents,  nay,  even  torches  of  wax.  "Cereos 
Saturnalibus  muneri  dabant  humiliores  potentioribus,  quia  candelis  pauperes,  locupletes 
cereis  utebantur,"  Festus  Pompeius,  Lib.  III.  The  same  custom  is  witnessed  by  Martialis 
and  Macrobius. 


go  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

There  is  not  a  single  case  on  record  of  a  New  Year's  or  Christmas 
fire  held  in  the  open  air  in  ancient  times ;  when  such  fires  are  recorded, 
towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  they  are  of  a  perfectly  private 
character.^  It  can  scarcely  astonish  anybody  that,  in  the  coldest  time  of 
the  year,  good  care  was  taken  to  have  a  good  warm  fire,  and  that  for  that 

^  The  oldest  cases  of  quasi  public  Christmas  fires  are  found  in  1577  and  1591.  They 
are,  however,  kindled  in  the  private  houses  of  the  sexton  or  provost.  Wahlscheid,  Sieg 
District,  Archive  of  the  Protestant  Parish,  Document  of  April  23,  1577,  on  the  Miinchhof  of 
Wahlscheid,  property  of  the  Monastery  of  Maer  near  Neuss,  paragraph  5  :  "  Zum  funfften 
soil  der  opferman  haben  von  dem  vorschrieben  munchhofif  heixholtz,  notturfftigen  brandt 
sonder  schaden,  undt  zu  christmissen  einen  stock,  des  soil  der  halffman  schuldig  sein  zu 
leiden,  dasz  die  nachparn,  wem  solches  gefellig,  muegen  gehen  zu  desz  opffermans  hausz, 
umb  sich  bei  dem  christock  zu  wermen  "  ;  Schroteler,  Herrlichkeit  und  Stadt  Viersen,  Koln, 
1861,  pp.  349,  350,  Article  32  of  the  Viersener  Landrecht  oi  1591.  "Item  wan  ein  donner 
wetter  ist  soil  der  scholtis  den  kiister  die  klocken  helffen  trecken  oder  sein  diener,  desgleichen 
in  der  Christnacht  so  lang  helffen  trecken,  dass  ein  man  auss  Theys  hoff  an  die  kirch 
gahn  magh  und  in  der  selbe  fruhe  morgen  stondt  sail  der  scholtiss  einen  stock  oder 
hartholtz  ein  grot  feur  in  brandt  halten  bist  der  Gottesdienst  auss  ist,  das  die  jenighe, 
so  zur  metten  und  zur  kirchen  kommen,  sich  etwas  wermen  mogen."  The  old  new  year's 
fire  seems,  under  the  influence  of  the  special  conditions  of  early  morning  service,  to 
have  become  an  institute  and  servitude.  But  it  is  not  sure  that  there  is  any  special 
connection  between  this  fire  for  warming  the  church-goers  and  the  fire  of  the  Calends  of 
January.  How  great  is  the  danger  of  regarding  as  sacramental  customs  which  merely  spring 
from  the  requirements  of  the  season,  can  be  seen  from  the  following  case :  The  Bake  of 
Curtasye  from  the  Sloane  MS.,  1986,  in  the  British  Museum,  a.d.  1430-40,  ed.  by 
Furnivall  for  the  Early  English  Text  Society,  London,  1868,  in  The  Baabees  Book,  etc., 
p.  311  says  of  the  Marshall: 

"  383  Gomon-vsshere,  and  grome  also, 
Vndur  hym  ar  thes  two : 
Tho  grome  for  fuelle  that  schalle  brenne 
In  halle,  chambur,  to  kechyn,  as  I  the  kenne, 
He  shalle  delyuer  hit  ilke  a  dele, 
In  halle  make  fyre  at  yche  mele  ; 
Borde,  trestuls,  and  formes  also. 
The  cupborde  in  his  warde  schalle  go,  * 

The  dosurs  cortines  to  henge  in  halle, 
Thes  offices  nede  do  he  schalle ; 
393  Bryng  in  fyre  on  alhalawgh  day. 
To  condulmas  euen,  I  dar  welle  say 
Per  quantum  tempus  armigeri  habebunt  liberatam  et  ignis  ardebit  in  aula. 
So  longe  squiers  lyueres  shalle  hafe, 


THE  CALENDS  OF  JANUARY  91 

purpose  large  pieces  of  wood  were  put  on,  but  a  thorough  proof  would  be 
requisite  before  such  fires  could  be  regarded  as  of  Germanic  origin.  Besides, 
they  are  by  no  means  confined  to  Christmas,  but  appear  on  Epiphany  as 
well.  An  old  Bavarian  manuscript  contains  the  item :  "  Ignes  qui  fieri 
Solent  in  vigilia  Epiphaniae,"^ 

We  know  from  a  Weistum  that  (a.d.  1184)  one  of  the  privileges  of  the 
manse  of  Ahlen,  Westphalia,  was  the  right  of  delivery  to  it  of  a  whole  tree 
for  the  festive  fire  at  Christmas  eve.  But  that  fire  is  at  the  same  time 
denoted  as  the  clergyman's  private  festive  Christmas  fire;^  and  in  another 

Of  grome  of  halle,  or  ellis  his  knafe ; 
But  fyre  shalle  brenne  in  halle  at  mete 
To  Cena  domini  that  men  hase  ete ; 
Ther  browgt  schalle  be  a  holyn  kene, 
That  sett  shalle  be  in  erber  grene, 
And  that  schalle  be  to  alhalawgh  day, 
And  of  be  skj'fted,  as  y  the  say ; " 
and  p.   327 : 

"  833  In  chambur  no  lygt  there  shalle  be  brent, 
Bot  of  wax  ther-to,  yf  ge  take  tent ; 
In  hall?  at  soper  schalle  caldels  brenne 
Of  parys,  ther-in  that  alle  men  kenne ; 
Iche  messe  a  candelle  fro  alhalawghe  day 
To  candelmesse,  as  I  gou  say; 
Of  candel  liueiay  squiyers  schalle  haue, 
So  long,  if  hit  is  mon  wille  kraue." 

This  fifteenth  century  book  states  that  fires  are  to  bum  in  the  hall  from  November  i  to 
February  2,  whilst  squires  shall  have  a  fire  during  their  dinner  from  November  I  to  Maunday 
Thursday  {Cetia  Domini).  A  daily  candle  they  receive  from  November  i  to  February  2. 
Had  mention  of  these  customs  been  made  about  Christmas-tide,  they  might  easily  have  been 
supposed  to  be  popular  Christmas  customs.  In  churches,  no  doubt,  the  number  of  candles 
used  at  Christmas  was  very  great,  as  can  still  be  seen  from  church  accounts,  e.g.,  at  the 
manse  of  Engelskirchen,  District  of  Wipperfurth,  Rhine-country,  of  a.d.  1596-7:  "In 
Anno  96  auff  christmess  funft'  und  ein  fiidel  pont  wachfs  zu  kertzen  gemacht  vur  jeder  pont 
gegeben  22  alb.  facit  4  guld.  19  alb.  6  heller,  und  in  der  christnacht  ein  halff  pont  kleiner 
kertzen,  costen  4  alb." 

1  Ulrich  Jahn,   DeutscJie  Opfergebratuhe,   1884,  p.  255. 

"^  When  stating  the  privileges  of  his  parsonage  the  clergyman :  "  Et  arborem  in  nativi- 
tate  domini  ad  festivum  ignem  suum  adducendum  esse  dicebat."  Kindlinger,  MUnstersche 
Beitrdge,  II.,  document  34;   Grimm,  Deutsche  Alythologie,  2nd  ed.,  p.  594. 


4 


92  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Wetstum,  of  Riol  and  Velle  on  the  Mosella,  the  Scheffe  is  said  to  be  entitled 
to  a  Winnachtploech  •,^  whilst  a  third  Wetstum,  of  Tavern  on  the  Mosella, 
remarks:  "Item  ein  bochg  zu  hawen  vff  Christabend  vor  den  Christbraten ;"  "^ 
so  that  we  have  no  more  to  do  with  a  festive  fire,  but  merely  with  a  fire 
\  for  roasting  meat  in  the  kitchen,  if  there  was  one,  and  if  the  roasting  was 
not  rather  done  over  the  fire  of  the  common  room.  There  occur  also 
public  payments  for  a  common  Christbraden  of  burghers.^ 

That  the  festive  fire  at  Christmas  was  a  private  affair,  and  that  poor 
people  were  not  always  able  to  have  one  of  their  own,  appears  from  a  little 
medieval  story,  either  from  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century,  which 
contains  an  allusion  to  the  Yule-log,  although  it  seems  to  point  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  by  no  means  common,  so  that  a  blacksmith  could  rejoice  to 
get  a  Yule-log  contrary  to  expectation,  by  a  mere  play  of  seeming  chance.^ 

^  Grimm,  Deutsche  Kechtsaltertiimer.,  II.,  302.  "^  Ibid.,  11.,  264. 

^ Town- Archive  of  Bingen  on  the  Rhine,  No.  90,  Town  accounts  of  a.d.  1501,  "Item 
14  s.  6  hllr.  hain  wir  geben  zum  Christbraden  uff  die  christnacht  den  burgern  und  nachbern." 

*  "  Quidam  in  partibus  de  Winchelse  sibi  aggregavit  pecuniam  in  cista,  de  qua  nee  sibi 
nee  aUis  voluit  subvenire.  Veniens  igitur  una  die  ut  earn  videret,  vidit  super  eam  quendam 
diabolum  sedere  nigerrimum,  dicentem  sibi,  '  Recedere,  nee  est  pecunia  tua,  sed  Godewini 
fabri.'  Quod  ille  audiens,  et  nolens  eam  in  alicujus  commodum  pervenire,  cavavit  magnum 
truncum,  ipsamque  imposuit,  reclusit,  et  in  mare  projecit.  Quern  quidem  truncum  marinae 
undae  ante  ostium  dicti  Godewini,  viri  justi  et  innocentis,  manentis  in  proxima  villa,  super 
litus  in  siccum  projecerunt,  circa  vigilium  Dominici  Natalis.  Exiens  itaque  idem  Godwinus 
mane,  invenit  truncum  projectum,  multumque  gavisus  pro  habendo  foco  in  tanto  festo,  eum 
in  domum  suam  traxit,  et  ad  locum  foci  gaudens  apposuit.  Intrante  itaque  festi  praedicti 
vigilia,  ignis  trunco  supponitur,  metallum  intro  latens  liquescit,  et  exterius  defunditur. 
Quod  videns  uxor  dicti  Godwini,  ignem  subtrahit,  truncum  movet  et  abscondit.  Sicque 
ut  dominus  praedictae  pecuniae  victum  quaereret  hostiatim,  dictusque  faber  de  paupere 
fieret  inopinate  dives,  devulgatur  quia  in  vicinio  quod  miser  ille  pecuniam  suam  demersisset, 
cogitavit  ergo  uxor  dicti  Godwini  quod  eidem  misero  in  aliquo  cautius  subveniret,  cogitans 
dictam  pecuniam  fuisse  suam,  fecit  uno  die  panem  unum,  et  in  eo  XL.  solidos  abscondens 
dedit  ei.  Quern  infortunatus  ille  accipiens  piscatoribus  super  litus  obviavit,  panem  eis  pro 
uno  denario  vendidit,  et  recessit.  Venientes  itaque  piscatores  ad  domum  dicti  Godwini, 
prout  fuerunt  assueti,  dictum  panem  extrahunt  et  suis  equis  elargiri  proponunt.  Quern 
agnoscens  domina  domus,  avenam  pro  eis  dedit  et  eum  recepit.  Idemque  miser  finetenus 
pauper  undique  remansit,"  Thomas  Wright,  A  Selection  of  Latin  Stories  (from  Manu- 
scripts of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries :  a  Contribution  to  the  History  of  Fiction 
during  the  Middle  Ages.  London,  printed  for  the  Percy  Society,  1842),  pp.  220,  221, 
from  Altdeutsche  Blatter,  Vol.   I.,  p.  75 


THE  CALENDS   OF  JANUARY  93 

On  British  soil  an  early  instance  of  a  Yule-clog  or  Yule-log  has  yet  to 
be  given.  Ulrich  Jahn's  generalizations,^  according  to  which  a  pre-Christian 
winter-solstice  fire  would  have  to  be  supposed  as  a  general  custom,  are  void 
of  any  historical  foundation,  and  merely  represent  fantastic  speculations. 
Nay,  the  very  fact  that  the  British  version  of  the  above  story  ^  makes  the^ 
blacksmith  use  the  tree  trunk  as  an  anvil  seems  to  indicate  that  the  Yule- 
log  is  only  a  more  modern  intrusion  into  that  story.  For  the  fact  that 
the  figure  of  the  blacksmith  is  kept  in  the  German  story  shows  that  the 
anvil  has  been  replaced  by  the  Yule-log,  and  not  vice  versa.^ 

The  privilege  of  cutting  wood  in  the  forest  about  Christmas  appears  *<^ 
also  in  Switzerland,  where  it  is  connected  with  a  local  legend.  On  Decem- 
ber 27,  1375,  the  women  of  the  Berne  village  Hetteswil  are  said  to  have 
surprised  and  slain  the  knightly  army  of  the  Count  of  Coucy.  As  a  reward 
they  received,  from  the  Prior  of  the  monastery,  the  privilege  to  go,  on 
St.  John's  day  at  Christmas,  with  a  hatchet  into  the  forest  of  the  monastery 
and  cut  as  much  wood  for  boiling  their  Christmas  soup  as  they  needed.  But 
when  it  was  found  that  the  forest  suffered  too  great  damage,  because  the 
women  used  to  boil  too  tough  Christmas  fowl,  the  privilege  was  changed 
to  the  effect  that  instead  of  the  firewood  they  received  a  meadow,  which, 
in  1826,  was  still  in  the  possession  of  the  women  of  Hetteswil,  and  the 
yearly  yield  of  which  was  spent  for  a  meal  called  the  fowl-soup.*  That  we 
have  here  to  do  with  an  old  term  servitude  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
in  some  cases  the  servitude  of  driving  a  cart-load,  or  several  cart-loads,  of 
wood  to  a  castle  or  landlord's  dwelling,  known  to  medieval  Latinity  as 
truncagium,  and   in   early   English  as   wodlade,^  appears  not   at   Christmas 


^  Die  deutschen  Opfergebrduche  bet  Ackerbau  iind  Viehztuht,  Breslau,  1884,  p.  258. 

^  Thomas  Wright,  A  Selection  of  Latin  Stories,  p.   27,  No.  25. 

3 The  passage  of  the  English  story  runs:  "Dixit  quidam  puer  ad  magistrum  navis,  'Da 
mihi  truncum  istum,  quia  faber  istius  villae  amicus  meus  est,  et  volo  ei  dare  truncum  ut 
faciat  sibe  exinde  incudem.'  Et  magister  concessit.  Cum  autem  faber  quadam  die  opera- 
retur  super  truncum  ilium  et  feriret,  exilierunt  denarii  de  trunco  per  quoddam  foramen,  et 
obstupuit  faber,  sed  omnes  collegit,  et  consilio  uxoris  suae  illos  abscondit." 

*  Berner  Neujahrsblatt,  1826,  28  ;  Rochholz,  Deiitscher  Glanbe  imd  Branch,  Berlin,  1867, 
II.,  p.  317. 

^  Notes  and  Queries,  7th  series,  x.,  472,   1890,   Geo.  Neilson:  Ti-uncagium. 


94 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


alone,  but  at  Christmas  and  May,  whilst  the  old  terms  were  Martinmas 
and  mid-May  (or  Rogation  Days  or  Pentecost),  of  which  the  former  had 
been  shifted  to  Christmas.^ 

So  late  as  about  17 12  the  wood  for  the  Christmas  fire  is  mentioned,  it 
being  a  servitude  of  the  holders  to  drive  it  into  the  castle.  ^ 

When  the  tenant  of  a  small,  holding  paid  his  duties  at  the  old  terms, 
he  was,  as  a  rule,  entertained  to  dinner  by  his  landlord.  The  meal  he  got 
was  not  a  free  gift  of  the  landlord,  but  something  to  which  the  tenant  had 
a  claim,  and  which  had  to  be  of  a  certain  substantiality  and  duration.  Its 
duration  was,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  fixed  by  the  time  requisite  for  burn- 
ing away  a  wet  wheel  on  the  open  fire  in  the  hall  in  which  the  meal  took 
place.  We  know  that  custom  to  have  been  observed  at  various  terms,  in 
autumn   as    in   winter.^      As    long    as    the    only    instance    known    fell    on 

^  Biirgermeisteramt  Osterath,  district  Crefeld,  Schatzregister  des  Kirspels  Osteraht, 
made  in  1683,  after  models  of  1603  and  1640,  contains  the  regulation  that  the  community 
has  the  duty  to  drive  to  the  castle  of  Linn  twelve  cart-loads  of  wood  every  eight  weeks : 
"  Item  noch  jahrligs  drey  Christ-  und  drey  Meyfuhren  beyfahren."  In  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury Christmas  and  Pentecost  (instead  of  Martinmas  and  Pentecost)  appear  together  in  the 
same  way  (Klotz,  Beschreibung  der  Herrschaft  und  Stadt  Gera,  l8l6,  p.  237;  the  first 
article  of  the  Reussische  Kirchenvisitation  of  1533  is:  "  Zu  gedenken  das  Opfer-Geld  zu 
Besserung  des  Pfarrers  jahrlich  auf  zwo  Tagzeit,  als  namlich  zu  Weyhnachten  und  Pfingsten 
ordentlich  einzubringen  und  zusammlen"). 

The  Archive  of  the  Protestant  parish  of  Leuscheid,  Rhine  country,  contains,  under 
IV.  3^,  a  complaint  about  the  withdrawal  of  the  Christmas  allowance  of  wood  of  Novem- 
ber 17,  1696.  According  to  it,  it  was  customary,  "dass  ein  jedweder  kirspels  eingesessener, 
der  welcher  ein  gefahr  unter  henden  hat,  auff  christmess  umbtrent  ein  karrich  hotz,  dass 
Christ-holtz,  zu  unterhaltung  der  hauss-steur  an  dass  widem  hauss  unentgeltlich  zu  liefferen 
schuldig." 

^  Biirgermeisteramt  Liedberg,  district  Miinchen  Gladbach,  Acts,  No.  16,  4,  Manuscript 
of  about  17 12,  fragment  of  a  Weistum  on  the  services  to  be  rendered  to  the  family  of 
Liedberg,  paragraph  10,  "  Item  ist  auch  das  gantze  amt  nach  advenant  schuldig  auf  Christ- 
messen  die  corstbrende  dem  haus  Liedberg  aufzufahren  "  {advenattt  Is  the  document  which 
regulates  the  distribution  among  the  several  communities  of  the  servitudes  to  be  borne  by 
the  whole  district). 

^  In  an  unprinted  document  on  the  privileges  of  the  family  of  Luftelberg  in  the  Siirst, 
a  district  between  Bonn  and  Euskirchen,  Rhine  country,  of  1579,  which  is  copied 
from  the  same  original  as  is  an  eighteenth  century  manuscript  in  the  Archive  of  the  family 
of  Luftelberg,  it  is  decreed  that  the  holders  have  to  deliver  their  duties  to  the  landlord 
on   St.  Kunibert's  day   (October   10):    "Wann   solches  geschehen,  so  soil  der  grundherr 


THE  CALENDS  OF  JANUARY  95 

December  26,  there  was  at  least  some  possibility  of  connecting  this  habit 
with  the  Calends-log  and  later  Christmas-log,  but  now  this  no  longer  holds 
good.  Speculative  mythologists  found  in  that  wheel  an  image  of  the 
sun,  and  regarded  its  burning  as  a  solstice-celebration.  In  all  probability 
the  holders  had  to  deliver  the  wheels — of  course  simple  tree  sections^ — 
and  the  time  requisite  for  burning  them  was  made  the  duration  of  their 
meal,  in  order  that  they  might  not  make  them  too  thin. 

The  custom  of  Christmas  fire  no  doubt  has  its  root  in  the  Roman  j/^ 
Calends  of  January  rite  of  the  same  description.  But  that  fact  did  not 
hinder  it  from  receiving  an  intrinsically  Christian  interpretation.  It  was  an 
old  institute  for  the  landlord  to  give  his  tenant  a  cart-load  or  wheelbarrow- 
load  of  wood  at  the  birth  of  a  child.  Christ  being  regarded,  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  as  a  kind  of  little  universal  brother  to 
mankind,  the  occasion  of  his  birth  was  taken  as  an  opportunity  for  gifts 
similar  to  those  which  children  received  at  the  birth  of  a  baby  brother  or 
sister.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  such  gifts  to  children 
were  called  in   North   Germany  kindsvot,  or  child's-foot,^   the  same   name 

darentgegen  schuldig  sein  den  geschwornen  ein  frei  kost  zugeben,  drei  gericht  von  einem 
schwein,  erbsen  und  pfeffer,  week  und  brod,  wein  und  bier,  wie  von  alters  gebrauchlich. 
Wann  die  geschwornen  ihre  zeit  sitzen,  so  soil  man  ein  rad  an  das  feur  legen,  welches 
3  tag  und  6  wochen  im  wasser  gelegen  hat,  so  lang  den  geschwornen  essen  und  trinken 
geben,  bis  ein  auswendiger  mann  komt  und  nicht  erkennen  mag,  was  das  gewesen  sei" 
(communicated  to  me  by  Dr.  Armin  Tille  of  Bonn).  It  was  the  custom  that  the  peculi- 
arities of  such  dinners  as  were  legal  institutions  should  be  prescribed  exactly.  Compare 
Lamprecht,  Deutsches  Wirtschaftsleben  im  Mittelalter,  III.,  p.  32,  Urbary  of  the  Stift  St. 
Trond  of  a.d.  1274  (Bridal  on  the  Mosella) :  "Item  autumpno  facto  debent  praedicti 
feodales  habere  servitium  sive  prSndium  de  tribus  ferculis  ab  ecclesia  sancti  Trudonis,  olera 
cum  camibus  bovinis,  carnes  porcinas  cum  pipere  et  porcinas  carnes  assas."  Another 
example  of  this  custom  was  published  by  Grimm,  Deutsche  Rechtsaltertumer,  II.,  p.  615, 
616,  693  :  '*  Uff  sant  stephans  tage  solle  der  lehenmann  liefem  vnd  bezalen  pfenningzins 
vnd  weissbroit,  dan  soil  man  dem  lehenman  guitlich  thuin  auff  dem  hofe,  zweyerley  wein 
zweyerley  fleischs,  zweyerley  brot  vnd  alles  desjeniges,  wass  vom  tage  zeitig  iss.  abe  der 
lehenher  bedoecht,  dass  der  lehenman  zu  lange  seess,  so  solle  der  lehenher  ein  naefF  sechs 
wochen  vnd  drey  tag  in  ein  mistphole  legen  laissen,  dieselb  nit  rbdeln  noch  stochen,  vnd 
wannehe  die  verbrandt,  dass  der  dauon  keyner  mehr  erkandt  mocht  werden,  soil  der 
lehenman  vffstehen." 

^  A  broad  cross  section  of  a  tree  still  often  forms  the  Scottish  peat  barrow  wheel. 

^  Franz  Wessel's  description  of  the  Roman  Catholic  service  at   Stralsund,  A.D.   1523, 


96  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

being  given  to  the  present  of  straw  which  the  cattle,  swine,  geese,  and 
ducks  received  that  day,  in  order  that  they  might  take  part  in  the  rejoicing 
over  Christ's  birth.  Similarly  it  was  a  custom  that,  at  Hippetsweiler,  the 
Kelner  gave  to  the  small  holders  at  Christmas  three  cart-loads  of  wood,  and 
one  cart-load  on  the  birth  of  a  child.  ^  The  Gotteshausleiite  of  the  monastery 
of  Petershausen,  Schlatt,  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  received 
at  Christmas  a  wheelbarrow-load  of  wood — on  the  birth  of  a  boy  a  cart-load, 
and  on  the  birth  of  a  girl  a  wheelbarrow-load  of  wood.^ 

There  is  another  Italian  custom  connected  with  the  Calends  of  January 
which  found  its  way  through  Gaul  to  Great  Britain  and  Germany,  though 
comparatively  late.  It  is  the  habit  of  walking  about  in  the  hides  of  calves 
and  deer  and  doing  all  kinds  of  indecency  under  the  protection  of  these 
masks.  Even  Rudolph  Koegel,  who  has  a  great  inclination  for  finding 
something  Germanic  everywhere,  admits  this  custom  to  be  of  Italian  origin.^ 
That  this  habit  was  unknown  in  inner  Germany  comparatively  late  can  be 
shown  by  a  misunderstanding  made  by  a  glossator  when  translating  a 
passage  relating  to  it.^  There  was  a  German  custom  to  sit  down  on  a  cow's 
hide,  or  deer's  hide,  at  a  cross  road,  or  on  the  roof  of  the  house,  on  cer- 
tain nights  and  wait  for  oracles.  This  was  called  liodorsaza.  When  the 
glossator  found  the  phrase  in  cervulo  mentioned,  he  thought  it  referred  to  that 
custom,  and  translated :  in  cervtilo,  in  liodersdza,  whilst  in  vetula  he  interpreted 
in  deru  varentun  truchti,  i.e.,  in  the  procession. °     About  these  masquerades, 

Hofer  in  Bartsch's  Germania,  xviii.,  i  :  "s6  dr6gen  se  garuen  in  de  koppele  efte  sus  in 
de  lucht,  dadt  se  de  windt  sne  rip  efte  sus  de  lucht  beschinen  konde,  dadt  hetede  men 
des  raorgens  kindesv6dt,  dadt  deelde  men  des  morgen  allem  litth,  schloch  eine  garue  2  efte  3 
uth  undt  gaf  den  swinen  koyen  enten  gensen  dadsealle  des  kindesv6thes  geneten  scholdenn." 

^Weistum  of  a.d.  1400,  from  Hippetsweiler,  Upper  Rhine,  Fiirstaibergisches  U^-kunden- 
huch,  Tubingen,   1877,  Vol.  VI.,  No.   132,  p.  216. 

'^A.D,  1444,  Ibid.,  Vol.  VI.,  No.  240,  Hossler,  Ziir  Entstehungsgeschichte  des 
Bauernkrieges  in  Siidwestdetitschland,  Leipzig  Dissertation,   1895,  pp.  25,  26. 

'^  Geschichie  der  deutschen  Literatur,  Strassburg,  1894,   I.,  p.  30. 

*  Althochdeutsche  Glossen.,  II.,  365,    17. 

^Koegel,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur,  I.,  30,  note,  explains  in  deru  varentun 
truchti  quite  rightly  as  procession,  while  Miillenhoff,  Zeitschrift  fiir  deutsches  Altertum, 
XII.,  351,  thought  it  to  refer  to  the  Wild  Huntsman,  who,  however,  is  in  no  way  con- 
nected with  the  Twelve-nights,  as  Koegel  assumes,  these  Twelve-nights  themselves  being 
of  Christian  origin,  the  Dodekahemeron  of  the  old  Church. 


THE  CALENDS   OF  JANUARY  97 

which  are  till  very  late  associated  with  the  Calends,  and  have  for  a  long 
time  no  relation  to  the  Church  festival  of  Christ's  Nativity,  we  have  various 
reports,  the  most  important  being  the  homily  De  Sacrilegiis,  written  in  Gaul 
in  the  seventh  or  eighth  century,  but  commonly  ascribed  to  Augustine.^ 
"  Reversing  the  order  of  things,  the  heathens  in  those  days  dress  them- 
selves up  into  indecent  monsters.  These  miserable  men  and,  still  worse, 
some  baptized  Christians  take  on  false  likenesses  and  monstrous  faces,  of 
which  people  should  rather  be  ashamed  and  sad.  For  what  reasonable 
man  would  believe  that  men  in  the  possession  of  their  senses  should,  by 
playing  a  stag,  turn  themselves  into  the  nature  of  animals?  Others  dress 
themselves  up  in  the  hides  of  their  cattle;  others  put  on  the  heads  of 
animals,  rejoicing  and  exulting  that  they  are  turned  into  the  shape  of 
beast  to  such  an  extent  that  they  no  more  appear  to  be  human  beings. 
How  horrible  is  it,  further,  that  those  who  have  been  born  men  take  on 
women's  dresses,  and  effeminate  their  manhood  by  girls'  dresses  in  an 
abominable  masquerade !  They  who  do  not  blush  to  put  their  warlike 
arms  into  women's  dresses !  Bearded  faces  are  displayed  by  them,  and  yet 
they  wish  to  be  taken  for  women  ! "  "What  is  so  insane  as,  by  a  disgraceful 
dress,  to  give  the  male  sex  the  appearance  of  the  female?  What  so  insane 
as  to  spoil  one's  face  and  put  on  masks  by  which  even  demons  might  be 
terrified?  What  so  insane  as  with  indecent  gestures  and  improper  songs 
to  sing  the  praise  of  vices  in  shameless  delight  ?  To  turn  one's  self  into  a 
wild  beast,  to  resemble   the  goat  or  the  stag,  in  order  that  man,  created 

^Ed.  by  Caspari,  Christiania,  1886,  who  gives  a  large  number  of  parallels  to  the 
customs  related  and  expressions  used.  Compare  Friedrich  Panzer,  Bayerische  Sagen  und 
Brduche,  Munchen,  1855,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  466-468:  "Cervulum  seu  vitulam  facere." 
Caspari's  text  says  about  the  Calends  of  January,  §  24 :  "In  istis  diebus  miseri  homines 
cervolo  facientes  vestiuntur  pellibus  pecodum.  Alii  sumunt  capita  bestiarum,  gaudentes  et 
exultantes  ut  homines  non  essent.  Et  illud  quid  turpe  est !  Viri  tunicis  mulierum 
induentes  se  feminas  videri  volunt."  The  usual  phrases  are:  "cervulum  et  vetulam 
facere;  in  cervulo  aut  vetula  vadere ;  cervulos  aut  vetulas  ducere."  Koegel,  Ceschichte  der 
deutschen  Literatur,  I.,  30,  note.  The  Council  of  Auxerre,  573-603  (in  Concilia  aevi 
Merffvingici,  ed.  by  Frid.  Maassen,  Hannover,  1893,  p.  179),  forbade :  "  Non  licet 
Kalendis  Januarii  vetolo  aut  cervolo  facere  vel  streneas  diabolicas  observare,  sed  in  ipsa 
die  sic  omnia  beneficia  tribuantur  sicut  et  reliquis  diebus"  {Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis, 
1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  444). 

G 


98  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

to  be  the  likeness  and  image  of  God,  may  become  the  sacrifice  of  demons!" 
"Therefore  he  who  gives  to  anyone  of  those  miserable  men  any  human 
requirement  in  the  Calends  of  January,  when  in  the  sacrilegious  rite 
they  rather  rage  than  play,  shall  know  that  he  does  not  give  it  to  men 
but  to  demons.  Therefore,  if  you  do  not  want  to  participate  in  their  sins, 
do  not  permit  that  the  stag  or  the  cow  or  any  such  portent  come  before 
your  house."!  It  almost  looks  as  if  the  Matronalia  of  March  i,  the 
lascivious  festival  of  the  ladies  of  ancient  Rome,  had,  with  the  beginning 
of  the  year  through  the  Julian  calendar,  been  shifted  to  January  i,  and 
there  revived  in  ever-new  glory  and  licentiousness !  In  less  eloquent 
speech  the  same  habit  was  repeatedly  forbidden  by  Councils  and  mentioned 
in  Penitentials,  especially  during  the  eighth  century.^ 

^A  list  of  other  allusions  to  this  custom  is  given  in  my  Geschichte  der  deutschen 
IVeiknacht,  pp.   15  and  288. 

^  "  Kalendas  quae  dicuntur,  et  vota,  et  brumalia  quae  vocantur ;  et  qui  in  primo  Martii 
mensis  die  fit  conventum,  ex  fidelium  universitate  omnino  toUi  volumus :  sed  et  publicas 
mulierum  saltationes  multam  noxam  exitiumque  afferentes :  quin  etiam  eas,  quae  nomine 
eomm,  qui  falso  apud  Gentiles  dii  nominati  sunt ;  vel  nomine  virorum  ac  mulierum  fiunt, 
saltationes  ac  mysteria,  more  antiquo  et  a  vita  Christianorum  alieno,  amandamus  et  expel- 
limus;  statuentes,  ut  nullus  vir  deinceps  muliebri  veste  induatup,  vel  mulier  veste  viro 
conveniente.  Sed  neque  comicas,  vel  satyricas,  vel  tragicas  personas  induat ;  neque 
execrandi  Bacchi  nomen,  uvam  in  torcularibus  exprimentes,  invocent ;  neque  vinum  in 
dolis  effundentes,  risum  moveant ;  ignorantia  vel  vanitate,  ea  quae  ab  insaniae  impostura 
procedunt,  exercentes"  (Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1683,  Concilium 
Quinisextum  sivi  in  Trullo,  a.d.  706,  Ixii.).  The  same  appears  in  England:  Thorpe, 
Ancient  Laws,  II.,  34  (xxvii.  "De  Idolatria  et  Sacrilegio,  et  qui  ...  in  Kalendas 
Januarii  in  cervulo  et  in  vitula  vadit,"  etc.).  §  19.  "Si  quis  in  Kalendas  lanuarii  in  cervulo 
aut  vetula  vadit,  id  est,  in  ferarum  habitus  se  communicant,  et  vestiuntur  pellibus  pecudum, 
et  assumunt  capita  bestiarum;  qui  vero  taliter  in  ferinas  species  se  transformant,  iii.  annos 
poeniteant ;  quia  hoc  daemoniacum  est "  (seventh  century).  ...  §  24.  '"  Qui  observat 
divinos,  vel  praecantatores,  philacteria  etiam  diabolica,  et  somnia,  vel  herbas ;  aut  v. 
feriam,  honore  lovis,  vel  kalendas  lanuarii,  more  paganorum,  honorat ;  si  clericus  est, 
V.  annos  poeniteat ;  laicus  in.  annos  poeniteat."  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and 
Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  Vol.  III.,  p.  424;  Egbert's  Penitential,  a.d.  732-766, 
viii.  4:  "Caraios  et  divinos  praecantatores,  filecteria  etiam  diabolica  vel  herbas  vel  facino 
suis  vel  sibi  impendere  vel  quinta  feria  in  honore  Jovis  vel  Kalendas  Januarias  secundum 
paganam  causam  honorare,  si  non,  quinque  annos  peniteat  clericus,  si  laicus,  tres  annos 
peniteat."  Ducange,  Glossarium,  under  Cervula,  adds  a  long  list  of  instances  :  "  Concilium 
Toletanum,  iv..  Can.  x.  ;   S.   Isidorus,   Lib.   I.,  De  Officio  Ecclesiae,  cap.  xl.  ;    Concilium 


THE  CALENDS   OF  JANUARY  99 

^Vhen,  through  the  Julian  calendar,  the  Calends  of  January  became  a 
festive  tide  among  the  Germanics,  they  were  at  first  probably  a  festive  tide 
like  others,  without  any  special  reference  to  the  new  year.     But  in  the  course 

Turonense,  ii. ,  Can.  xvii.  ;  St.  Augustinus,  Sermo  de  Tempore,  215:  'Si  adhuc  agnoscatis 
aliquos  illam  sordidissimam  turpitudinem  de  hinnula,  vel  cervula  exercere,  ita  durissime 
castigate,  ut  eos  poeniteat  rem  sacrilegam  commisisse';  Vita  S.  Eligii,  Lib.  II.,  cap.  xv.  : 
'  Nullus  in  Kalendis  Januarii  nefanda  et  ridiculosa,  vetulas,  aut  cervulos,  aut  jotticos  facial;' 
Halitgarius  Cambrensis  in  Libra  Poenitentiali,  cap.  vi. :  '  Si  quis  in  Kalendis  lanuarii,  quod 
multi  faciunt,  et  in  cervulo  ducit,  aut  in  vetula  vadit,  tres  annos  poeniteat ; '  Burchardus 
IVormaciensis,  Lib.  XIX.,  cap.  v.:  'Fecisti  aliquid  tale,  quod  pagani  fecerunt,  et  adhuc 
faciunt  in  Kalendis  lanuarii  in  cervolo  et  vetula :  si  fecisti,  triginta  dies  in  pane  et  aqua 
poeniteas;'  St.  Pacianus  in  Paraetusi  ad  Poenitentiam  ;  S.  Ambrosius  in  Psalmo  xli. :  'Sed 
iain  satis  in  exordio  tractatus,  sicut  in  principio  anni,  more  vulgi  cervus  allusit ; '  Faustinus 
Episcopus  in  Sermone  in  Kalettdas  lanuarias :  '  Quis  enim  sapiens  credere  poterit  inveniri 
aliquos  sanae  mentis,  qui  cervulum  facientes,  inferarum  se  velint  habitus  commutari?  Alii 
vestiuntur  pellibus  pecudum,  alii  assumunt  capita  bestiarum,  gaudentes  et  exultantes,  si  taliter 
se  in  ferinas  species  transformaverint,  ut  homines  non  esse  videantur ; '  Aldhelmus,  Abbas 
Malmesburiensis  initio  Epistolae  ad  Eahfridum  ;  Epistolae  Petri  Damiani,  p.  384,  editionis 
A.D.  1610;  Durandus,  Lib.  VI.,  De  Ratione;  cap.  xv."  Ducange,  Glossarium,  under 
Kalendae,  quotes  a  large  number  of  other  prohibitions  of  the  Calends  of  January  celebrations : 
"  Cottcilium  Romamini  sub  Zacharia,  Can.  viii. ;  Concilium  Turonense,  ii.,  Cann.  xvii.-xxii.; 
Capitulare  Gregorii,  ii. ,  P.  P.  pro  Bavaris,  cap.  \aii. ;  Attonis  Episcopi  Basilensis  Capitula,  cap. 
Ixxix.;  Epistula  ipsiusZachariaeadBonifaciumMogimtinum;  St.  Ambrosii Sermo  \\.;  S.Maximi 
Taurinensis,  Petri  Chrysologi  Sermo,  cxv. ;  Faustini  Episcopi  apud  Bolandum,  I  Januariis : 
Joannis  Chrysostomi ;  S.  Asterii ;  Tertullianus  De  Idolatria,  c.  xiv. ;  Isidorus,  Lib.  I.,  De 
Ecclesiae  Officio,  cap.  xl. ;  Alcuinus,  Lib.  de  Divino  Officio,  c.  iv. ;  Cyprianus  in  Vita  S. 
Caesarii  Arelatensis,  sub.  fine.  ;  Anonymus  in  Vita  S.  Sansonis  Episcopi  Dolensis,  Lib.  II., 
c.  xiii. ;  Vita  S.  Hugonis  Abbatis  S.  Martini  Eduensis,  n.  xv. "  Direct  continuations  of  these 
turbae  impudicae  are  the  Calends  guilds  or  Calends  brethren.  Ducange,  Glossarium,  under 
Kalendae :  "  Sodalitates  ad  pias  causas,  inquit  Sambucus.  Fratres  Calendarum,  qui  vulgo 
Confratres,  forte  quod  singulorum  mensium  Kalendis  invicem  convenirent,  occurrunt  in 
Lib.  I.,  Decret.  S.  LMdislai  Regis  Hungariae,  c.  xiv.,  39,  et  in  Capitulis.  Laurentii  Archiep. 
Strigon.,  c.  xlvi."  Under  the  influence  of  a  Greek  rite  these  wild  enjoyments  in  the  course 
of  centuries  became  even  an  unholy  ecclesiastical  institution.  Ducange,  Glossarium,  under 
Kalendae:  Octava  Synodus,  Can.  xvi.,  ex  versione  Anastasii  (Canon  xvi.  is  wanting  in  the 
Greek  version),  says :  "  Fuisse  quosdam  Laicos  qui  secundum  diversam  Imperatoriam 
dignitatem  videbantur  capillorum  comam  circumplexam  involvere  atque  reponere "  (ita 
namque,  ait  hoc  loco  Anastasius,  a  cervice  usque  ad  capita  contorquebant,  ut  clericali  more 
in  rotundam  tonsi  viderentur)  "et  gradum  quasi  sacerdotalem  per  quaedam  indusia  et 
vestimenta  sacerdotalia  sumere,  et  ut  putabatur,  Episcopos  constituere,  superhumeralibus, 
id  est,  palliis,  circumamictos,  et  omnem  aliam  Pontificalem  indutos  stolam,  qui  etiam 
proprium  Patriarcham  adscribentes,  eum  qui  in  adinventionibus  risum  moventibus  Praelatus 


lOO  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

of  time  that  side  was  bound  to  come  into  the  foreground,  to  rival  and, 
later  on,  to  replace  the  old  Germanic  New  Year  towards  the  middle 
of  November.      So  it  could  not  fail  that  Germanic  usages  having  special 

et  Princeps  erat,  et  insultabant,  et  illudebant,  quibusque  divinis,  modo  quidem  electiones, 
promotiones,  et  consecrationes,  modo  autem  acute  calumnias,  et  depositiones  Episcoporum 
quasi  ab  invicem  et  per  invicem  miserabiliter  et  praevaricatorie  agentes  et  patientes ;  tales 
autem  actio  nee  apud  gentes  a  saeculo  unquam  audita  est,"  etc.  The  later  medieval 
ecclesiastical  Festum  Fatuorum  or  Hypodiaconorum  is  the  outcome  of  the  marriage  between 
the  Calends  of  January  and  that  Greek  habit.  In  the  shape  of  an  Abbot  of  Unreason,  a 
Lord  of  Misrule,  or  Boy-bishop,  and  similar  types,  it  lived  on  for  centuries,  and  is,  in  Great 
Britain,  even  to-day  not  quite  extinct.  Ducange,  Glossarium,  under  Kalendae:  "  Beletus 
(vivebat  in  Ecclesia  Ambianensi,  a.d.  I182),  chap.  cxx.  :  'Sunt  nonnullae  Ecclesiae,  in 
quibus  usitatum  est,  ut  vel  etiam  Episcopi  et  Archiepiscopi  in  Coenobiis  cum  suis  ludant 
subditis,  ita  ut  etiam  sese  ad  ludum  pilae  demittant.  Atque  haec  quidem  libertas  ideo  dicta 
est  Decembrica,  quod  olim  apud  ethnicos  moris  fuerit,  ut  hoc  mense  servi  et  ancillae,  et 
Pastores  velut  quadam  libertate  donarentur,  fierentque  cum  dominis  suis  pari  conditione, 
communia  festa  agentes  post  collectionem  messium  :  quanquam  vero  magnae  Ecclesiae, 
ut  est  Remensis,  hanc  ludendi  consuetudinem  observent,  videtur  tamen  laudabilius  esse  non 
ludere. '  Ibid,  in  Libra  de  Divinis  Officiis,  chap.  Ixxii :  '  Festum  Hypodiaconorum,  quod 
vocamus  Stultorum,  a  quibusdam  perficitur  in  Circumcisione,  a  quibusdam  vero  in 
Epiphania,  vel  in  eius  octavis.  Fiunt  autem  quatuor  tripudia  post  Nativitatem  Domini  in 
Ecclesia,  Levitarum  scilicet,  Sacerdotum,  Puerorum,  id  est,  minorum  aetate  et  ordine,  et 
Hypodiaconorum,  qui  ordo  incertus  est.  Unde  fit  ut  ille  quandoque  annumeretur  inter 
sacros  Ordines,  quandoque  non,'"  etc.  Ducange,  Glossarium,  under  Kalendae,  also 
mentions:  "Litterae  Petri  Capuani  Cardinalis  Legati  in  Francia,  a.d.  1198,  quibus  praecipit 
Odoni  Episcopo  Parisiensi  et  aliquot  Canonicis  eiusdem  Ecclesiae,  ut  hocce  '  festum '  quod 
'  Fatuorum '  appellabatur,  et  in  Ecclesia  Parisiensi,  ut  in  caeteris,  invaluerat,  penitus 
abolerent :  quod  dictus  Episcopus  aliique  ad  id  nominati  Commissarii  executi  sunt,  facta 
ordinatione  in  Ecclesia  deinceps  observanda,  quae  habetur  apud  Gusanvillam  post  Notas  ad 
Petrum  Blesensem.  lUud  etiam  interdixit  Conciliuvi  Parisiense,  a.d.,  121 2,  Part  IV.,  Can.  xvi. : 
'A  festis  vero  follorum,  ubi  baculus  accipitur,  omnino  abstineatur.'  Id  est,  baculus 
Episcopalis."  About  the  end  of  these  festivities  the  following  remark  is  made  by  Ducange, 
Glossarium,  under  Kalendae:  "At  in  Gallia  videtur  desiisse,  ex  quo  serio  manum  admovit 
Facultas  Theologiae  Parisiensis  ann.  1444,  12  Martii,  missa  ad  id  Epistola  encyclica  ad 
Galliae  Praesules,  damnatoque,  pleno  Theologorum  consessu,  hocce  festo,  in  quo  Sacerdotes 
ipsi  ac  Clerici  Archiepiscopum,  aut  Episcopum,  aut  '  Papam '  creabant,  eumque  'Fatuorum' 
appellabant :  '  Divini  ipsius  Officii  tempore  larvati,  monstruosi  vultibus,  aut  in  vestibus 
mulierum,  aut  leonum,  vel  histrionum,  choreas  ducebant,  in  Choro  cantilenas  inhonestas 
cantabant,  ofiFas  pingues  supra  cornu  altaris  juxta  celebrantem  Missam  comedebant,  ludum 
taxillorum  ibidem  exarabant,  thurificabant  de  fumo  foetido,  ex  corio  veterum  sotularium,  et 
per  totam  Ecclesiam  currebant,  saltabant,'  etc.  Verba  sunt  citatae  Epistolae,  quam 
edidit  Savaro,  et  ex  eo  Gussanvilla."     The  boy  bishop  is  a  comparatively  late  development 


THE  CALENDS  OF  JANUARY  loi 

reference  to  the  beginning  of  the  year  should  bye  and  bye  be  transferred 
to  the  Calends  of  January,  where  we  find  them  in  the  eighth  and  in  the 
eleventh  centuries.^  The  passage  evincing  this  Koegel  for  the  first  time 
satisfactorily  explained  in  his  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur?  At  New 
Year's  eve  people  girt  with  their  swords  sat  down  on  the  roofs  of  their 
houses  to  find  out  what  good  and  bad  things  would  be  brought  by  the 
new  year.  Others  sat  down  at  a  cross  road  on  a  cow-hide.  As  was  men- 
tioned before,  this  was  called  liodorsaza  or  sitting  down  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  an  oracle,  whilst  the  person  who  did  so  was  called  hleotharsdzzo 
(Keronic  Glossary)  or  hleodarsizzeo  (Hrabanic  Glossary),  which  was  thought 
to  correspond  to  Latin  negromanticus.^  But  this  habit  was  not  confined  to 
the  Calends  of  January,  probably  appearing  at  all  holy  tides,  and  certainly 
at  the  time  of  the  waning  of  the  moon,  nor  were  oracles  the  only  pur- 
pose of  it,  as  it  was  resorted  to  for  the  cure  of  fever  and  probably  of  other 
illnesses.  So  say  the  sentences  of  Pope  Gregory  III.  (731-741),^  in  which, 
among  others,  Janus  is  referred  to  as  the  god  in  whose  honour  the  liodor- 
saza is  done. 


from  this  group  of  customs.  Early  documental  evidence  for  it  seems  to  be  lacking  entirely. 
Ducange,  Glossarium,  under  Kalendae,  mentions  an  "  Inventarium  omamentorum  Ecclesiae 
Eboracensis,  ann.  1530,"  in  Monast.  Anglic.^  Vol.  III.,  p.  169,  where  we  find  :  "  Item  una 
mitra  parva  cum  petris  pro  Episcopo  puerorum,"  and  "Item  unus  annulus  pro  Episcopo 
puerorum,  et  duo  archys,  unus  in  medio  ad  modum  Crucis  cum  lapidibus  in  circum- 
ferentiis,"  etc. 

^  To  a  custom  like  that  refers  the  following  ^^Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III., 
col.  1863,  Gregorii  Papae  II.  Capittdare  (circa  A.D.  720),  ix.);  *' Ut  incantationes,  et 
fastidiationes,  sive  diversae  observationes  dierum  Kalendarum,  quas  error  tradidit  paganorum, 
prohibeantur,  sicut  maleficia,  et  magorum  praestigia,  seu  etiam  sortilegium,  ac  divinantium 
observatio  execranda."  Burchard  von  Worms  in  Friedberg,  Atis  deutschen  Bussbiickern, 
p.  84:    "Vel  in  bivio  sedisti  supra  taurinam  cutem,  ut  et  ibi  futura  tibi  intelligeres  ? "     , 

2  Vol.  I.,  p.  29. 

'^ Althochdeutsche  Glossen.,  I.,  215,  33;    II.,  763,  9;    II.,  365,  35. 

*  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1875,  Gregorii  Papae  III.  Judicia, 
xxiii.  :  "Si  quis  maleficus  aut  malefica  filium  suum  aut  filiam  supra  tectum  aut  in 
fornace  pro  sanitate  febrium  posuerit,  vel  quando  luna  obscuratur  ;  vel  clamoribus  suis, 
vel  maleficiis  sacrilego  usu  se  defensare  posse  confidunt,  vel  ut  frater  in  honore  Jovis  vel 
Beli  aut  lani,  secundum  paganam  consuetudinem,  honorare  praesumpserit,  placuit  secundum 
antiquam  constitutionem  sex  annos  poeniteant.     Humanius  tres  annos  judicaverunt." 


lo;i  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

Other  kinds  of  prophecy  were  by  the  observation  of  the  moon,^  of  the 
months,  and  of  the  effective  potency  of  the  several  hours.  Even  the 
Church  could  not,  in  the  long  run,  keep  apart  from  the  celebration  of 
Calends.  An  ecclesiastical  observance  at  the  Calends  existed  at  least  in 
the  middle  of  the  ninth  century.^  At  the  Councils  of  Oxford,  a.d. 
1222,  and  of  Lyon,  1244,  the  Calends  of  January  were,  as  Circumcisio 
Domini,  proclaimed  a  general  festive  day  to  be  strictly  kept  by  the 
Church.  Johannes  von  Holleschau  ^  speaks  in  1426  of  calendisaiiones  in 
a  little  treatise  on  Christmas  called  Largum  Sero  or  Liberal  Evenifig, 
which  is  a  slight  modification  of  a  booklet  written  by  a  priest,  Alsso, 
about  A.D.  1400.  Alsso  even  tells  us  more.*  At  the  beginning  of  every 
month  the  Bohemians  carried  about  the  image  of  their  god  Bel,  singing 
a  Czechic  song.  They  rejoiced  in  the  god  thus  visiting  their  houses, 
hoping  faithfully  that,  in  consequence,  the  whole  month  long  he  would 
send  them  good  luck,  and  lead  all  their  fortune  and  life.  Therefore  people 
brought  gifts  to  the  image  of  Bel,  as  it  were  a  tribute,  regarding  themselves 
as  his  true  worshippers  in  order  that  he  might  bring  them  luck.  But 
St,  Adalbert,  because  it  was  too  circumstantial  to  do  so  at  the  beginning 
of  every  month,  and  in  order  that  the  Christians  might  not  also  celebrate 
the  beginning  of  the  months  according  to  heathen  custom,  changed  this 
celebration  of  the  beginnings  of  months  into  a  celebration  of  Christ's  Nativity 
and  of  the  week  following  it,  thinking  that  it  would  be  better  to  exercise 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  VI.,  i.,  col,  207,  Synodus  Generalis  Rodomi(c\xca. 
A.D.  878),  xiii. :  "Si  quis  in  Kaleiidis  lanuariis  aliquid  fecerit,  quod  a  Paganis  inventum 
est,  et  dies  observat,  et  lunam,  et  menses ;  et  horarum  effectiva  potentia  aliquid  sperat  in 
melius  aut  in  deterius  verti,  anathema  sit." 

"^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  V,,  col.  394,  Hincmari  Remensis  Capitula, 
A.D.  852,  XV. :  "  Ut  quando  presbyteri  per  Kalendas  simul  convenerint,  post  peractum 
divinum  mysterium,  et  necessariam  collationem,  non  quasi  ad  prandium  ibi  ad  tabulam 
resideant,  et  per  tales  in  convenientes  pastellos  se  invicem  gravent,  quia  inhonestum  est, 
et  onerosum.  Saepe  enim  tarde  ad  ecclesias  suas  redeuntes  majus  damnum  de  reprehensione 
conquirunt,  et  de  gravedinc  mutua  contrahunt,  quam  lucrum  ibi  faciunt."  A  large  number 
of  quotations  as  to  the  monthly  meetings  of  the  clergy  on  the  Calends  are  given  by  Ducange, 
Glossarium,  under  Kalendae. 

^  Usener,   Christlicher  Festbratuh,  Bonn,   1889,  p.  72, 

*  Usener,  Ibid.,  p.  63. 


THE  CALENDS   OF  JANUARY  103 

that  habit  in  the  time  in  which  Christ  was  born,  than  at  the  beginning  of 
months,  at  which  honour  had  once  been  bestowed  upon  Bel.  He  also  is 
said  to  have  altered  the  name  and  the  sense  of  that  celebration,  making  of 
kalendisare  colendisare  (from  colere,  to  revere),  because  through  that  usage 
Christ  was  revered  at  his  birthday,  and  not  in  the  Calends.  If  this  report 
does  not  imply  that  medieval  Christmas  in  South  Germany  took  the  place 
of  an  older  Calends  celebration  according  to  Roman  usage,  I  do  not  know 
what  it  implies.  The  confusion  in  which  the  minds  of  both  authors  are 
is  best  shown  by  the  fact  that  they  not  only  regard  the  Calends  rites  as 
an  imitation  and  distortion  of  Christmas  rites  caused  by  the  devil,  but 
at  the  same  time  inform  us  that  up  to  St.  Adalbert's  time  the  Calends 
alone  prevailed,  and  that  it  was  this  Saint  who  transferred  to  Christmas  the 
Calendisationes  or  Calends  processions, — two  statements  which  are  mutually 
exclusive.^ 

When  the  Chapters  of  Bishop  Martin  of  Bracae,  a.d.  575,^  forbade  the 
faithful  to  observe  dangerous  Calends  customs,  to  keep  the  heathen  times 
of  leisure,  and  to  adorn  their  houses  round  about  with  laurel  and  green 
trees,^  he  rendered  a  very  great  service  indeed  to  folklore,  for  this  seems 
to  be  the  only  prohibition  of  that  Calends  custom  which  has  come  down  to 
us,  and  it  is  not  until  eight  hundred  years  later  that  we  can  show  houses 
to  have  been  adorned  with  green  and  trees  at  New  Year  and  Christmas. 
It  is  told,  however,  of  the  Sabinian  king  Tatius,  to  whom  by  the  legend 
a  date  is  given  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.,  that  in 
winter  he  received  branches  of  a  happy  or  fortunate  tree  from  the  grove 
of  Streniae  as  favourable  omens  with  respect  to  the  new  year.  It  is  true 
that  story  is  told  by  a  Roman  writer  of  about  400  a.d.,  Q.  Aurelius  Sym- 


^  Usener,   Christlicher  Festbrauch,  Bonn,   1889,  p.  63. 

"^ Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  17 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  399,  Capitula  Martmi  Episcopi 
Bracensis  (circa  A.D.  575),  chap.  Ixxiii.  :  "  Non  liceat  iniquas  observationes  agere  Kalen- 
darum,  et  otiis  vacare  gentilibus,  neque  lauro  aut  viriditate  arborum  cingere  domes.  Omnis 
haec  observatio  paganism!  est." 

^Viriditate  arborum  can  only  mean  the  same  as  viridibus  arboribus,  and  not  "with  green 
branches  of  trees";  viridifas  never  meaning  leaves  or  branches,  but  referring  simply  to  the 
colour. 


I04  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

machus,  and  it  cannot  therefore  be  regarded  as  affording  any  evidence  on 
a  state  of  things  twelve  hundred  years  before  that  time.  But  the  one 
thing  certain  from  it  is  that,  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  empire,  there  existed 
the  habit  of  presenting  to  people,  on  the  Calends  of  January,  branches  of 
trees  for  the  sake  of  good  luck  in  the  new  year.^  It  is  again  solely  from 
this  custom  that  we  learn  the  meaning  of  the  adornment  of  houses  with 

^  Rosinus,  Antiquitatum  Romanarum  Corpus  Absolutissimum,  (ed.  Dempster,  Genevae, 
1620),  Lib.  IV.,  chap,  v.,  remarks:  "  Kalendas  lanuarii  laetis  precationibus  faustum  sibi 
invicem  ominabantur  teste,  praeter  Plinium  et  alios,  Ovidio : 

'  At  cur  laeta  tuis  dicuntur  verba  Kalendis, 
Et  damus  alternis,  accipimusque  preces.' 

Item  munera  sibi  invicem  mittebant  boni  ominis  causa,  videlicet  caricas,  coriotides,  et 
mella,  ut  dulces  dies  anni  a  dulcibus  rebus  auspicarentur :  et  stipem,  id  est,  nummum 
signatum  :  quae  omnia  simul  strenas  appellarunt :  cuius  rei  origo  ad  ipsum  T.  Tatium  regem 
a  Symmacho  refertur,  quod  is  verbenas  e  luco  Streniae  Deae  acceperit,  significans  strenuis 
viris  istas  deberi.  Strenam,  inquit  Festus,  vocamus,  quae  datur  die  religioso,  ominis  boni 
gratia,  a  numero,  quo  significatur  alterum,  tertiumque  venturum  similis  commodi,  veluti 
trenam,  praeposita  S.  litera,  ut  in  loco,  et  lite  solebant  antiqui.  Constituta  autem  per 
C.  Octavium  Augustum  Monarchia,  hie  mos  inolevit,  ut  equites  ac  reliquus  populus  ipsis 
etiam  Imperatoribus  strenam  Kalendis  lanuarii  conferrent :  qua  de  re  saepe  loquitur 
Suetonius."  The  mention  of  Quintus  Aurelius  Symmachus  refers  to  his  Epistolae,  Lib.  X., 
Ep.  xxviii.  :  "  Ab  exortu  paene  urbis  Martiae  strenarum  usus  adolevit,  auctoritate  Tatii 
Regis,  qui  verbenas  felicis  arboris  ex  luco  Strenuae  anni  novi  auspices  primus  accepit,  D.D. 
Imperatores.  Nomen  indicio  est  viris  strenuis  haec  convenire  ob  virtutem  :  atque  ideo 
vobis  huiusmodi  insigne  deberi  ;  quorum  divinus  animus  magis  testimonium  vigilantiae 
quam  omen  expectat."  The  verbenae  felicis  arboris  mentioned  here  played  an  important 
part  in  Roman  ceremonies.  Compare  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  Lib.  XXIX.  :  "Verbenas 
felicis  arboris  gestans."  According  to  Servius,  the  term  included  branches  of  laurel,  olive, 
and  myrtles.  A  great  number  of  instances  are  enumerated  in  the  Lib.  X.  of  the  Miscellanies 
which  accompany  the  Epistles  of  Symmachus,  under  Ep.  xxviii.,  in  the  Paris  edition  of 
1604,  by  A.  Fr.  The  Christian  poet  Metellus,  in  his  Quirinales,  has  put  into  eloquent 
Terse  the  passage  quoted  above  from  Symmachus  : 

"  Strenae  praeterea  nitent — Plures  aureolae,  munere  regio, 
Olim  Principibus  probis — lani  principiis  auspicio  datae, 
Fausto  temporis  omine — Ut  ferret  Ducibus  strenua  strenuis 
Annus  gesta  recentior. — Illas  nobilitas  Caesaribus  piis, 
Rex  dignis  Procerum  dabat. — Urbi  quas  latiae  turn  iuveni  dedit 
Rex  Titus  Tatius  prior, — Festas  accipiens  paupere  munere 
Verbenas  studio  Patrum. — Solleres  posteritas  quas  creat  aureas. 
Servant  dona  tamen  notam — A  luco  veteri  nomine  Strenuae." 


THE  CALENDS   OF  JANUARY  105 

laurel  and  green  trees  in  the  sixth  century.  These  things  were  put  up  as 
good  omens  for  the  luck  of  the  year.  Even  later  evidence  of  this  custom 
is  very  scarce.  That  in  Italy  it  lived  on  we  know  at  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  through  Polydore  Vergil,  who  says :  "  Trimmyng  of  the 
Temples  with  hangynges,  floures,  boughes,  and  garlandes,  was  taken  of  the 
Heathen  people,  whiche  decked  their  Idoles  and  houses  with  suche  arraye."^ 
In  Germany  the  two  fifteenth  century  witnesses  for  that  usage  come  both 
from  the  Rhine  country,  from  Strassburg,  and  both  mention  that  at  New 
Year's  day  the  houses  were  adorned  with  green  fir  branches.^ 

In  Strassburg  it  is  also  that,  a  hundred  years  later,  the  first  Christmas    1^ 
tree  appears,  a  usage  which  seems  to  have  sprung  out  of  the  union  of  the 
habit    of  adorning    houses   with    green   branches    and   trees    according    to 
Roman  Calends  custom,  and  of  a  Christian  tenth  century  legend,  according    \ 
to  which,  in    the   night   when  the  Saviour  was   born,  all   trees   bloom  and    I 
bring  forth  fruits  in  the  forest.     This  legend  can  be  proved  to  have  been    \ 
very  popular  in  the  Germany  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

In  England  the  same  custom  must  have  been  popular,  at  least  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  even  in  the  form  of  trees  or  artificial  trees.  "Against  ^ 
the  Feast  of  Christmas,  euery  mans  house,  as  also  their  parish  Churches, 
were  decked  with  Holm,  luy,  Bayes,  and  whatsoeuer  the  season  of  the  yeere 
aforded  to  be  greene.  The  Conduits  and  Standards  in  the  streetes  were, 
likewise,  garnished.      Amongst  the  which,   I  read,  that  in  the  yeere  1444, 

^  An  abridgegment  of  the  tiotable  worke  of  Polidore  Vergile,  by  Thomas  Langley,  Lon- 
don, 1 55 1)  Book  v.,  chap,  i.,  fol.  98^.     This  remark  refers  to  festivals  in  general. 

^Sebastian  Brant,  Narrenschiff,   1494)  65,  37  ss.  in  Zarncke's  edition,  Leipzig,  1854, 
p.  64: 

*'  Vnd  wer  nit  ettwas  nuwes  hat 
Vnd  vmb  das  nuw  jor  syngen  gat, 
Vnd  gryen  tann  riss  steckt  in  syn  huss 
Der  meynt  er  leb  das  jor  nit  uss 
Als  die  Egyptier  hieltten  vor, 
Des  glichen  zuo  dem  nuwen  jor 
Wem  man  nit  ettwas  schencken  duot 
Der  meynt  das  gantz  jar  werd  nit  guot." 
And  Geiler  von  Kaisersberg,  Die  Emeis  Dis  ist  das  Buch  von  der  Omeissen,  Strassburg, 
Grieninger,   1516. 

OP  THE     ^  X 
OF  J 


io6  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

by  tempest  of  thunder  and  lightning,  on  the  first  of  February  at  night, 
Pauls  steeple  was  fiered,  but  with  great  labour  quenched,  and  toward  the 
morning  of  Candlemas  day,  at  the  Leaden  Hall  in  Cornhill,  a  Standard 
of  tree  being  set  up  in  the  midst  of  the  pauement,  fast  in  the  ground, 
nayled  full  of  Holme  and  luy,  for  disport  of  Christmas  to  the  people,  was 
torne  up  and  cast  downe  by  the  malignant  Spirit  (as  was  thought),  and  the 
stones  of  the  pauement  all  about  were  cast  in  the  streets,  and  into  divers 
houses,  so  that  the  people  were  sore  aghast  at  the  great  Tempests."^  Gay, 
in  his   Trivia,  sings  : 

"  When  Rosemary  and  Bays,  the  poet's  crown, 

Are  bawl'd  in  frequent  cries  through  all  the  town ; 

Then  judge  the  festival  of  Christmas  near, 
'  Christmas,  the  joyous  period  of  the  year! 

Now  with  bright  Holly  all  the  temples  strow 

With  Laurel  green,  and  sacred  Mistletoe." 

And  from  that  time  on  there  is  a  complete  continuity  of  tradition  as  re- 
gards the  adornment  of  houses  and  churches  by  holly  and  ivy,  evergreen 
and  mistletoe,  box  and  bay.      There  are  the  well-known  fifteenth  century 
carols  about  the  contest  between  Holly  and  Ivy : 
"  Holly  and  Ivy,  Box  and  Bay, 

Put  in  the  Church  on  Christmas  day." 


ijohn  Stow,  The  Survay  of  London  (written  a.d.  1598),  London,  1618,  pp.  149,  150. 
On  p.  667,  Stow,  speaking  of  a  long  pole  preserved  in  Gisors  or  Gerrards  Hall  in  the  city, 
says:  "The  Pole  in  the  Hall  might  be  vsed  of  old  time  (as  then  the  custome  was  in 
euery  Parish)  to  be  set  up  in  the  Summer  a  May-Pole,  before  the  principall  house  in  the 
Parish  or  Street,  and  to  stand  in  the  Hall  before  the  Serine,  decked  with  Holme  and  luy 
at  the  Feast  of  Christmas.  The  Ladder  serued  for  the  decking  of  the  May-Pole,  and  roofe 
of  the  Hall."  To  this  he  adds  the  marginal  note  :  "  Euery  mans  house  of  old  time  was 
decked  with  Holly  and  luy  in  the  winter,  especially  at  Christmas. "  In  the  edition  of  1 598 
the  passage  is  found  on  p.  284.  Compare  Ritson's  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  3rd  ed.,  by 
Carew  Haslitt,  London,  1877,  p.  113.  This  undeniable  correspondence  between  Christmas 
customs  and  May  customs  in  later  times,  which  is  also  found  in  the  servitude  of  woodlade  or 
truncagium,  is  one  of  the  conclusive  proofs  that  Christmas  has  taken  the  place  which  had 
been  held  before  by  Martinmas. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


TABULA  FORTUNAE. 


Among  the  Roman  Calends-of-January  customs  which  were  taken  over 
by  Germanic  tribes  there  is  one  deserving  special  attention,  because 
it  gave  rise  to  the  belief,  among  modern  mythologists,  that  the  Germanics 
celebrated  a  festival  of  the  dead  about  the  darkest  time  of  the  year.  In 
fact,  this  view  in  a  certain  sense  replaced  the  alleged  Germanic  celebration 
of  a  winter  solstice,  in  which  Professor  Weinhold  and  a  few  others  still 
believe.  When  this  view  seemed  to  be  no  longer  tenable,  Professor 
Eugen  Mogk  yet  thought  it  too  daring  to  deny  that  the  Germanics  had 
had  any  festival  about  the  middle  of  the  winter,  and  assumed  that  there 
had  been  about  that  time  some  celebration  in  honour  of  the  dead  or 
ancestors.  He  took  as  the  basis  a  rite  which,  at  first  sight  no  doubt, 
has  the  appearance  of  an  offering  to  the  dead,  but  in  reality  is  of 
Mediterranean  origin,  having  been  known  in  the  early  centuries  of  our 
era  from  Egypt  to  Rome. 

Isaiah  Ixv.  1 1  says :  "  But  ye  are  they  that  forsake  the  Lord,  that 
forget  my  holy  mountain,  that  prepare  a  table  for  that  troop,  and  that 
furnish   the   drink   offering  unto   that  number."^     Jerome   (  +  a.d.  420),  in 

^The  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  version  is :  "  Et  vos  qui  dereliquistis  dominum,  et 
obliti  estis  montem  sanctum  meum.  Qui  ponitis  fortunae  mensam  et  libatis  super  earn  "  ; 
which,  however,  the  Septuagint  translated  as  meaning :  "  Vos  autem  qui  dereliquistis  nie 
et  obliti  estis  montis  sancti  mei,  et  paratis  fortunae  mensam :  et  impletis  daemoni 
potionem."  The  English  revised  version  of  1885  has:  "But  ye  that  forsake  the  Lord, 
that  forget  my  holy  mountain,  that  prepare  a  table  for  Fortune,  and  that  fill  up  mingled 
wine  unto  Destiny." 


io8  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

his  Commentary  to  Isaiah,  remarks :  ^  "  But  there  is  in  all  towns,  and 
most  of  all  in  Egypt  and  Alexandria,  the  old  custom  of  idolatry  that,  on 
the  last  day  of  the  year  and  of  the  last  month,  people  erect  a  table  full 
of  eatables  of  various  kind,  and  a  cup  mixed  with  mead,  in  order  to  try 
to  find  out  the  fertility  either  of  the  year  past  or  the  year  to  come.  This 
also  was  done  by  the  Israelites,  who,  adoring  the  portents  of  all  ghosts, 
did  not  offer  slain  animals  at  the  altar,  but  brought  their  offerings  to  a 
table  of  this  kind."^  In  the  Sermo  de  Sacrilegiis,  ascribed  to  St.  Augustine 
(  +  A.D.  430),  a  penalty  is  threatened  to  anyone  who,  for  the  Calends  of 
January,  adorns  the  tables  with  loaves  and  other  dishes.^  The  wandering 
to  the  north  of  that  Table  of  Fortune  can  be  traced  through  the  mentions 
of  it  by  St.  Eligius  (588-659);*  by  Boniface  in  his  letter  to  Pope  Zacharias, 
of  A.D,  742,5  jjj  which  he  testifies  to  that  usage  still  existing  both  in  Rome 
and  among  the  Germans,  with  the  consequence  that  it  was  interdicted  at 
the  Council  of  Rome  a.d.  743;^  and  by  Burchard  von  Worms  (  +  a.d. 
1024).'^      In   his  first  reference  the  latter  simply  mentions  the  custom,  but 

^  Operum  D.  Hieronymi,  Quintus  Tomus,  Comment arios  in  Prophetas  Qiios  Maiores 
Vacant  Continet,  Basileae,  1537  (ed.  Reuchlin),  p.  240. 

^  "  Est  autem  in  cunctis  urbibus,  et  maxime  in  Aegypto,  et  in  Alexandria  idololatriae 
vetus  consuetudo :  ut  ultimo  die  anni  et  mensis  eius  qui  extremus  est,  ponant  mensam 
refertam  varii  generis  epulis,  et  poculum  mulso  mixtum  :  vel  praeteriti  anni  vel  futuri 
fertilitatem  auspicantes.  Hoc  autem  faciebant  Israelitae,  omnium  simulacrorum  portenta 
venerantes :  et  nequaquam  altari  victimas,  sed  huiusce  modi  mensae  liba  fundebant." 

^§17:  "Quicunque  in  calendas  ianuarias  mensas  panibus  et  aliis  cybis  ornat." 

*  "  Nullus  in  cal.  Ian.  nefanda  aut  ridiculosa,  vetulas,  aut  cervulos,  aut  jotticos  faciat, 
neque  mensas  super  noctem  componat,  neque  strenas  aut  bibitiones  superfluas  exerceat." 
Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  Aberglatlbe  A. 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  17 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1880:  "Mensas  ilia  die  vel  nocte 
dapibus  onerare." 

^ Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1929,  Concilium  Romanum,  I., 
A.D.  743,  ix.  :  "  Ut  nullus  Kalendas  Januarias  et  broma  colere  praesumpserit,  aut 
mensas  cum  dapibus  in  domibus  praeparare." 

''  Deer  eta,  Coloniae,  1548,  193°:  "  Observasti  calendas  januarias  ritu  Paganorum, 
ut  vel  aliquid  plus  faceres  propter  novum  annum,  quam  antea  vel  post  soleres  facere, 
ita  dico,  ut  aut  mensam  tuam  cum  dapibus  vel  epulis  in  domo  tua  praeparares  eo 
tempore,  aut  per  vicos  et  plateas  cantores  et  choros  duceres " ;  and  p.  198*:  "Fecisti 
ut  quaedam  mulieres  in  quibusdam  temporibus  anni  facere  solent,  ut  in  domo  tua 
mensam  praeparares  et  tuos  cibos  et  potum  cum  tribus  cultellis  supra  mensam   poneres. 


TABULA   FORTUNAE  I 09 

in  the  second  he  adds  an  explanation,  which  shows  a  further  evolution  of 
the  Table  of  Fortune  into  an  offering  to  the  goddesses  of  fate.  The  further 
we  advance,  the  more  distinct  that  belief  grows,  and  is  shifted  to  Epiphany 
and  then  to  Christmas.  About  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
Martin  von  Amberg,  in  his  Gewissensspiegel,  tells  that  people  on  the  eve 
of  Epiphany  put  food  and  drink  on  the  table  for  Percht  with  the  iron 
nose;^  and  the  poem  "Von  Berhten  mit  der  langen  nase"^  seems  to 
allude  to  a  very  similar  custom. 

In  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the  Thesaurus  Pauperum,^  the  old  Egyptian 
and  Italian  custom  from  the  eve  of  the  Calends  of  January  has,  like  the 
sacredness  of  that  day,  become  part  and  parcel  of  German  folk -belief.  Some 
of  the  ancient  goddesses  of  the  people  have  become  connected  with  the 
new  holy  tide,  extending  from  December  25  to  January  6,  and  are  supposed 
to  be  honoured  by  that  alleged  sacrifice.  So  it  is  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  for  example  in  Bohemia,  where  the  custom  was  transferred  to 
Christmas  eve,  as  the  report  shows  which  is  given  in  Presbyter  Alsso's 
Largum  Sero  of  1426.^  Money  and  trinkets  were  built  up  on  a  table,  people 
believing  that  thus  they  would  increase.  Below  the  dishes  coins  were  laid 
for  the  same  purpose.  He  tells  :  "  The  fourth  custom  is,  that  on  Christmas 
eve  people  eat  a  large  and  lengthy  roll.  .  .  .  We  use  for  it  leaven  to  make 


ut  si  venissent  tres  illae  sorores,  quas  antiqua  posteritas  et  antiqua  stultitia  Parcas 
nominavit,  ibi  reficerentur.  Et  tulisti  divinae  pietati  potestatem  suam,  et  nomen 
suum,  et  diabolo  tradidisti,  ita  dico,  ut  crederes  illas  quas  tu  dicis  esse  sorores  tibi 
posse  aut  hie  aut  in  futuro  prodesse." 

^  Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  2nd  ed.,  p.  256:  '^^  Percht  mit  der  eisnen  nastn  an  der 
Perchtnacht." 

^  My  Geschichte  der  deutschen   Weihncuht,   1893,  PP*  4^  ^"^  Z^T' 

^  Codex  Tegeniseeensis,  434,  Ulrich  Jahn,  Deutsche  Opfergebr'duche,  Breslau,  1S84,  p.  282 : 
"  Multi  credunt  sacris  noctibus  inter  natalem  diem  Christi  et  noctem  Epiphaniae  evenire  ad 
domos  suas  quasdam  mulieres,  quibus  praeest  domina  Perchta.  .  .  .  Multi  in  domibus  in 
noctibus  praedictis  post  coenam  dimittunt  panem  et  caseum,  lac,  carnes,  ova,  vinum  et 
aquam  et  huiusmodi  super  mensas  et  coclearea,  discos,  ciphos,  cultellos  et  similia  propter 
visitationem  Perhtae  cum  cohorte  sua,  ut  eos  complaceant  .  .  .  ut  inde  sint  eis  propitii  ad 
prosperitatem  domus  et  negotiorum  rerum  temporalium."  On  similar  statements  about  such 
seeming  offerings,  compare  Schmeller,  Bayrisches  Worterbuch,  2nd  ed.,  I.,  p.  270. 

^Edited  by  H.   Usener,  Christlicher  Festbrauch,  Bonn,  1889. 

1 

\ 


no  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

it  tastier.  Old  and  honourable  people  of  orthodox  belief  and  fair  mind 
on  that  night  put  those  large  rolls  on  the  tables,  and  dishes  and  knives 
beside  them,  permitting  their  family,  if  they  choose,  to  eat  it  or  to  leave  it 
to  the  poor. — I  am  sorry  to  say  that  in  that  custom,  as  in  the  rest,  the 
devil  has  invented  a  great  illusion  in  his  own  favour;  for,  as  I  was  told, 
in  some  regions  the  Christians  put  the  rolls  and  knives  on  the  tables  and 
dishes,  not  for  the  praise  of  the  childhood  of  Christ,  but  in  order  that  in 
the  night  the  gods  might  come  and  eat  them.  But  that  is  a  gross  delusion 
of  the  heathens  who  have  many  gods ;  faithful  Christians,  however,  have  one 
only.  And  it  is  rather  a  gross  conception  that  those  spirits,  which  are 
demons,  should  eat  bodily  food — being  spirits."^ 

Not  much  later,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  very  similar 
custom  was  observed  in  the  Monastery  of  Scheyern  near  Pfaffenhofen.  There 
at  Christmas  a  plough  was  put  under  the  table,  and  a  Frau  Perthatisch  was 
prepared.2  This  custom  lived  on  German  soil  till  close  to  the  present 
time.  In  Karnthen,  on  the  eve  of  Epiphany,  bread  and  a  pie  were  put 
outside  for  Berchtl.  If  she  comes  and  eats  of  it,  there  will  be  a  good  year. 
At  Vordernberg,  Ober-Steiermark,  milk  and  bread,  after  people  have  eaten 
some  of  it,  are  placed  in  the  porch  for  Berschte,  whilst  all  the  inner  doors  are 
locked.  In  the  morning  milk  and  bread  have  disappeared.  In  other  parts 
of  the  same  region  food  is  left  on  the  table  for  the  Fersteln,  in  order  that 
they  may  not  hurt  people.^  That  the  Perchten  represent  a  plurality  is  evident 
from  the  form  Geperchten,  in  which  ge  is  the  collective  prefix.* 

^  Usener,   Christlicher  Festbrauch,  Bonn,   1889,  pp.  51-58. 

"^  Merkzettel  fur  die  Beichte  azis  Kloster  Scheyern,  written  1468  and  1469,  ed.  by  Usenet  in 
his  Christlicher  Festbrauch,  Bonn,  1889,  p.  83,  ss. 

^M.  Lexer  in  Wolf's  Zeitschrift,  IV.,  p.  300;  Karl  Weinhold,  Weihnachtspiele,  p.  25  ; 
Schmeller,  Bayrisches  Worterbuch,  2nd  ed.,  I.,  p.  271.  The  items  were  collected  by  Ulrich 
Jahn,  Deutsche  Opfergebrduche  bei  Ackerbau  und  Viehzucht,  Breslau,  1884,  p.  283,  where 
more  modern  cases  of  the  same  custom  are  mentioned. 

*An  dem  geperchtentag  den  man  haizet  der  zwelfte,  1334,  Innicher  Stiftsarchiv, 
Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  73.  The  B'dcheltag,  bachtag,  however,  or  day  preceding 
Christmas,  which  Schmeller-Fromman,  Bayrisches  Worterbuch,  271,  194,  and  Grotefend, 
Zeitrechnung,  I.,  14,  derive  from  Berchta,  is  dies  baculi  episcopalis  (compare  the  note 
on  p.  100),  the  day  on  which  children  are  "driven  out  of  school,"  because  the  Christmas 
vacation  begins.      The  same  is  the  case  with  Bdchlboschen.      Bavarian  Berchta  seems  to 


TABULA  FORTUNAE  ill 

There  are  s'undry  other  fifteenth  century  cases  on  record. ^  A  sixteenth 
century  report  shows  the  purely  Christian  evolution  of  this  custom.  On 
the  distribution  of  the  Epiphany  cake,  besides  all  the  members  of  the  household, 
Christ,  the  Virgin,  and  the  holy  three  kings  also  get  their  piece,^  while  here 
and  there  the  Table  of  Fortune  has  been  preserved  rather  more  purely, 
the  three  kings  merely  taking  the  place  of  Berchta.  In  Rothenkirchen, 
Frankenwald,  the  peasant,  before  going  to  bed  on  the  eve  of  Epiphany, 
puts  even  now  on  his  table  a  loaf  and  a  jug  of  water,  inviting  the  three 
kings  to  be  his  guests.  In  the  Saxony  of  the  seventeenth  century,  bread 
and  knives  were  laid  on  the  table.^  In  other  regions  the  same  custom  has 
been  shifted  to  St.  Andrew's  night,  and  appears  together  with  a  prophecy 
about  a  girl's  future  husband  or  a  man's  future  wife,*  or  has  been  preserved  at 
Christmas  eve  as  a  completely  set  dinner  table.^ 

About  the  beginning  of  our  century  it  was  "customary,  among  the 
peasants  in  the  north  of  Europe,  at  Christmas-time,  to  make  bread  in  the 
form   of  a   boar-pig.      This  they  placed  upon  the  table,  with   bacon   and 

be  simply  another  name  for  Saxonio-Thuringian  Holda  ;  the  former  being  now  derived  from 
Gothic  bairgan,  German  verbergen,  to  hide ;  the  latter  from  Old-High-German  helan,  New- 
High-German  verhehkn,  to  hide ;  and  both  names  appearing  also  as  names  of  a  whole 
host  of  inferior  female  deities,  the  latter  frequently  in  die  Holden,  Hidden,  or  Hollen, 
beside  Frau  Nolle,  the  former  at  least  in  the  word   Geperchtentag  mentioned  above. 

^  "Also  versUnden  sich  ouch,  die  an  der  Perchtnacht  der  Percht  speiss  opfernt  und  dem 
schretlein,  von  der  Hagen's  Germania,  I.,  349,  356;  H.,  64;  Die  am  ersten  jar  monden 
des  abentz  ein  tisch  mit  guter  speiss  seczen  die  nacht  den  schretelen,"  Codex  Germaniais 
Monacensis,  234,  f.  \^'^,  of  1458;  Panzer,  Beitrdge  zur  deutschen  Mythologie,  H.,  p.  262,  2, 
from  "  Buch  der  zehen  gebot,  spriiche  der  lehrer,  tafel  der  christlichen  weisheit,"  of  1458 ;  and 
"  Die  am  jahrsstag  dez  abentz  einen  tisch  mit  guter  speyss  setzen  die  nacht  der  schretlein," 
Codex  Germanicus  MoJtacensis,  523,  fol.  233 ;  Panzer,  Beitrdge  zur  deutschen  Mythologie, 
W.,  p.  263,  3,  from  "  Epitome  brevis  ex  sacris  libris  mosaicis  de  creatione  coeli  et  terrae." 
In  modern  times  the  table  remained  set  at  Christmas  eve  in  Silesia,  in  order  that  the  poor 
souls,  or  the  angels,  might  come  and  eat  of  the  food;  Peter,  VolkstUmliches ,  H.,  p.  274; 
Weinhold,  Weihnachtspiele,  p.  25 ;  Ulrich  Jahn,  Deutsche  Opfergebr'duche,  p.  286. 

2 Sebastian  Franck,  Weltbuch,  1567,  Part  I.,  fol.  50. 

^Praetorius,  Saturnalia,  1663. 

*Englien  und  Lahn,  Der  Volksnmnd  in  der  Mark  Brandetiburg,  Berlin,  1868,  p.  237. 

^  Schulenburg,  Wendische  Volksagen  und  Gebrduche  aus  dem  Spreewald,  Leipzig,  1880, 
p.  248.  This  table  is  by  mythologists  of  the  older  generation  taken  as  devoted  to  the 
ancestors  (Wolff- Mannhardt,  Zeitschrift  fiir  Mythologie,  HL,   123). 


112  YULE   AND  CHRISTMAS 

Other  dishes :  and,  as  a  good  omen,  they  exposed  it  as  long  as  the  feast 
continued.  To  leave  it  uncovered  was  reckoned  a  bad  omen,  and  totally 
incongruous  to  the  manners  of  their  ancestors.  They  called  this  kind  of 
bread  Julagalt."  ^ 

At  the  time  when  the  Table  of  Fortune  began  to  be  regarded  as 
an  offering  to  certain  spirits,  the  prophecy  which  had  been  connected  with 
it  was  disconnected  from  it  and  evolved  into  a  self-dependent  custom. 
The  same  Strenae  or  sweet  cakes,  which  we  know  from  Tertullian  ( +  a.d.  220),^ 
as  found  on  the  Saturnalia,  Brumalia,  and  Calends  of  January,  and  the 
rising  of  which  was  regarded  as  a  favourable  omen  for  the  new  year,  appear 
again  in  the  sixth  century  in  Gaul.  There,  as  in  the  south  three  hundred 
years  before,  the  baking  of  them  was  observed  for  the  sake  of  fortune- 
telling,  wherefore  the  Church  called  them  deviHsh.^ 

About  A.D.  700  these  Strenae  had  been  transferred  to  Christmas,  and 
were  eaten  in  honour  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  or  rather  in  commemoration  of 
her  afterbirth,  a  view  to  which  the  Council  of  TruUus  of  a.d.  706  took 
serious  objection,  punishing  the  rite  with  death  in  the  case  of  its 
being  practised  by  a  priest,  and  with  excommunication  in  the  case  of  the 
heretic  and  blasphemer  being  a  layman.  It  declared  in  its  Canon  Ixxix.  : 
"  Confessing  that  He  who  came  into  existence  without  seed  of  man,  was 
born  from  the  Virgin  without  afterbirth,  and  announcing  this  to  the  entire 
flock,  we  subject  to  correction  those  who  from  ignorance  do  anything  which 
is  not  decent  For  because  some  are  shown  to  bake  a  cake  after  the  day 
of  the  holy  birth  of  Christ  our  God  and  to  divide  the  same  amongst  one 
another,  that  is,  under  the  pretext  of  honour  to  the  afterbirth  of  the  immaculate 
Virgin  mother,  we  decree  that  henceforth  nothing  of  the  kind  be  done 
by  the  faithful.  For  this  is  no  honour  to  the  Virgin — who,  beyond  under- 
standing and  speech,  gave  birth  in  the  flesh  to  the  Word  that  cannot  be 


^Jamieson,  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  Paisley,  1882,  Vol.  IV., 
p.  865'',  after  Verel.  Not.  ad  Hervarar  Saga,  p.  1 39. 

"^  De  Idolatria,  chap.  xiv. 

^  "  Non  licet  Kalendis  lanuarii  vetula,  aut  cervolo  facere,  vel  strenas  diabolicas  observare: 
sed  in  ipsa  die  sic  omnia  beneficia  tribuantur,  sicut  et  reliquis  diebus."  Acta  Conciliorutn, 
Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  444,  Synodus  Autissiodorensis,  A.D.  578,  i. 


TABULA  FORTUNAE 


113 


understood — to  define,  measure,  and  describe  her  unutterable  birthgiving 
according  to  common  births  and  what  happens  in  ourselves.  If  therefore 
anybody  will  attempt  to  do  so  again,  he  shall  die,  if  he  be  cleric ;  and  he 
shall  be  excommunicated,  if  he  be  a  layman. "^  At  the  time  of  the  Council 
of  Trullus  that  question  had  occupied  the  most  serious  attention  of  the 
Church  for  several  centuries.  In  the  Decrees  of  Pope  Hormisdas  (514-523) 
those  problems  are  treated  most  thoroughly.^  Another  instance  occurs  in 
passage  in.   of  the  Lateran  Council  of  a.d.   649,  under  Pope  Martin  I.,^ 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1690,  Concilium  Quinisextum  sire  in 
Trullo,  A.D.  706,  Canon  Ixxix.  :  "0^'.  ^kkhxevrov  t6v  in  t^j  vapOevov  deiov  rbKov  6fw\o- 
yovvres  ws  /cat  dairbpws  (TvarAvra,  Koi  iravrl  Tip  iroi/j-vLip  KrjptjTTovres,  toi>s  i^  ayvolas  irpdirovrds 
Ti  TUP  ov  deovTiov  diopddffei  KadvTro^dWonev .  6d€v  eTreidrj  Tives  fxeTa  ttjw  Tjfiepav  ttjs  ay ias  toO 
Qeov  rjfjLuv  yevvricrews  ddKvvvrai  crefiidaXiv  'i\povTe%,  Koi  TajjTrjv dWi^Xois  /MeTadiddpTes  irpo<pda'€i  TifiTJs 
dTJdev  Xoxe'w  t'^s  dxpdvTOV  irapOevo/jL-qTopos,  opi^ofiev  fj.7]5iv  tolovtov  virb  tCov  wicrTdv  TeXeTcrdai. 
ov  ydp  Tifii]  ye  tovto  Ty  irapdivip,  ttJ  virip  vovv  Koi  \byov  rd  dx'j'p^Tov  TSKOijcrr)  \6yov  capKi,  €k  tQv 
KOLvdv  T€  /cat  Kud'  r]/xa.s  Ta  /caret  t6i>  &<ppa(TTOV  avT-rjs  t6kov  opl^eiv  koX  inroypd(j>eiv.  et  rts  oSv  dirb  rod 
vvv  wpaTTUv  TOLOVTOV  Ti  (fxjjpadelrj,  el  /teV  /c\ijpt/c6s  etrj,  Kadaipeiffdu.  el  5e  \ai/c6s,  d<popi^ea6<>}." 
Ixxix.:  "Absque  ullis  secundis  ex  Virgine  partum  esse  confitentes  ut  qui  sine  semine 
constitutus  sit,  idque  toti  gregi  annuntiantes,  eos,  qui  propter  ignorantiam  aliquid  faciunt 
quod  non  decet,  correctioni  subiicimus.  Quare  quoniam  aliqui  post  sanctae  Christi  Dei 
nostri  nativitatis  diem  similam  coquere  ostenduntur,  et  earn  sibi  invicem  impertiri,  honoris 
scilicet  praetextu  secundinarum  impollutae  Virginis  matris,  statuimus,  ut  deinceps  nihil  tale 
fiat  a  fidelibus.  Neque  enim  hoc  honor  est  Virginis,  quae  supra  mentem  et  sermonem,  quod 
comprehendi  non  potest  Verbum  peperit  came,  ex  communibus  et  iis  quae  in  nobis  fiunt, 
inenarrabilem  ejus  partum  definire,  metiri,  ac  describere.  Si  quis  ergo  deinceps  hoc  facere 
agressus  fuerit,  si  sit  quidem  clericus,  deponatur :  si  vero  laicus,  segregatur. " 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  II.,  col.  1014,  iii.  :  "  Proprium  quoque  Filii  Dei, 
ut  juxta  id  quod  scriptum  est,  in  novissimis  temporibus  Verbum  caro  fieret,  et  habitaret  in 
nobis :  intra  viscera  sanctae  Mariae  Virginis  genitricis  Dei  unitis  utrisque  sine  aliqua 
confusione  naturis  :  ut  qui  ante  tempora  erat  Filius  Dei,  fieret  filius  hominis ;  et  nasceretur 
ex  tempore  hominis  more,  matris  vulvam  natus  non  aperiens,  et  virginitatem  matris  deitatis 
virtute  non  solvens.  Dignum  plane  Deo  nascente  mysterium,  ut  servaret  partum  sine 
corruptione,  qui  conceptum  fecit  esse  sine  semine :  servans  quod  ex  Patre  erat,  et 
repraesentans  quod  ex  matre  suscepit." 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents  Relating  to  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  Oxford,  1871,  Vol.  III.,  p.  146:  "De  Beata  Virgine.  Si  quis  secundum 
sanctos  patres  non  confitetur  proprie  et  secundum  veritatem  Dei  genitricem  sanctam  semperque 
virginem  et  immaculatam  Mariam,  utpote  ipsum  Deum  Verbum  specialiter  et  veraciter,  qui 
a  Deo  Patre  ante  omnia  saecula  natus  est,  in  ultimis  saeculorum  absque  semine  concepisse  ex 
Spiritu  Sancto,  et  incorruptibiliter  eam  genuisse,  indissolubili  permanente  et  post  partum 
ejusdem  virginitate,  condemnatus  sit." 

H 


114 


YULE   AND    CHRISTMAS 


the  canons  of  which  were  brought  from  Rome  to  Great  Britain  by  John 
the  Precentor,  and  adopted  by  the  Council  of  Hatfield,  a.d.  680. 

About  the  year  1000,  in  Germany,  loaves  were  baked  in  the  name  of 
special  persons.  When  they  rose  very  high,  it  was  considered  a  sign  of 
prosperity  in  the  new  year;  and  when  they  did  not  rise,  it  was  deemed 
prophetic  of  bad  luck.^  In  the  course  of  time  these  customs  developed 
and  took  a  great  variety  of  forms.  When  the  Church  transferred  the 
beginning  of  the  year  from  the  Calends  of  January  to  Christmas,  these 
usages  were  also  transferred  thither,  where  we  find  them  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries.^  Another  usage  was  to  measure  water  into  a  pot 
on  the  eve  of  December  25,  and  again  next  morning.  If  its  quantity  had 
increased,  it  was  supposed  to  be  an  indication  of  a  plentiful  year ;  if  it  was 
just  the  same,  an  average  harvest  was  expected ;  and  if  less  than  before, 
it  was  the  announcement  of  a  poor  year. 

About  1800,  in  Scotland,  on  Christmas  morning,  one  of  the  family  used 
to  rise  before  the  rest  and  prepare  food  for  them,  which  had  to  be  eaten 
in  bed.  This  frequently  consisted  of  cakes  baked  with  eggs,  called  care- 
cakes.  A  bannock  or  cake  was  baked  for  every  person  in  the  house.  If 
any  one  of  these  broke  in  the  toasting,  the  person  for  whom  it  was  baked 
would  not,  it  was  supposed,  see  another  Yule.^ 

It  is  no  wonder  that  mythologists  who  did  not  know  the  passage  from 
Jerome  should  have  taken  this  custom  for  an  offering  to  the  dead  or  the 
chthonic    deities    of   the    Germanic    tribes.     But    it    is    not    true    that   the 

^In  the^Decreta  of  Burchard  von  Worms  (  +  1024),  Coloniae,  1548,  p.  193",  Ulrich 
Jahn,  Deutsche  Opfergebrduche,  Breslau,  1884,  p.  280,  the  question  is  put  about  New 
Year's  eve:  "Vel  si  panes  praedicta  nocte  coquere  fecisti  tuo  nomine:  ut  si  bene 
elevarentur,  et  spissi  et  alti  fierent,  inde  prosperitatem  tuae  vitae  eo  anno  praevideres." 

"^  Grimm,  Deutsche  Mythologie,  Abe'rglaube  F,  No.  43,  from  an  Austrian  MS.  of 
the  Monastery  of  St.  Florian  :  ' '  Item  an  dem  weihnachtabend  noch  an  dem  rauchen 
so  messent  die  lewt  9  leffl  wasser  in  ain  hefen,  vnd  lassent  es  sten  vncz  an  den  tag 
vnd  messent  herwider  auf.  1st  sein  mynner  das  dy  mass  nicht  ganz  ist,  so  chumpt  es 
des  jars  in  armiit.  Ist  sy  gancz  so  pestet  es.  Ist  sein  aber  mer,  so  wirt  es  vberflussi- 
kleich  reich."  In  the  sixteenth  century  J.  Colerus,  Calendarium  Oeconomicum  et  Ferpetuum, 
Wittenberg,  1591  ;  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  Praetorius,  Sattirnalia,  Leipzig,  1663, 
p.  407,  bear  testimony  of  the  same  custom.     Ulrich  Jahn,  Deutsche  Opfergebrduche,  p.  284. 

^Jamieson,  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  under  "Yule,"  vii. 


TABULA  FORTUNAE 


115 


chthonic  and  wind-deities,  Wodan,  Holda,  Perchta,  did  by  preference  hover 
about  Christmas,  as  Professor  Mogk  thinks.^  Plain  statistics  show  that  they 
appear  with  about  equal  frequency  at  all  seasons  of  the  year.  Nor  can 
the  later  popular  belief  of  Germany  be  adduced  in  favour  of  a  Germanic 
festival  of  the  dead  about  the  beginning  of  January,  because  apparitions  of 
spirits  do  not  occur  in  any  larger  percentage  about  the  time  of  Christmas 
than  at  any  other  time  of  the  year,  and  more  especially  the  Christmas 
rides  of  the  wild  huntsman  and  his  host  cannot  be  proved  to  be  older  than 
the  sixteenth  century.  The  mummings  and  masquerading  of  men  in  guise  of 
animals,  by  covering  themselves  with  hides — although  Professor  Mogk  takes 
them  for  a  kind  of  artificial  appearance  of  souls  of  the  dead  in  beast 
shape — are,  as  far  as  they  appear  in  old  Gaul  and  the  farthest  west  of 
old  Germany,  in  the  form  of  a  general  masquerade,  of  Roman  origin, 
as  has  been  shown  above. 

The  dressing  up  of  artificial  animals,  however,  which  is  found  all 
over  German  soil,  from  Martinmas  till  mid-Lent — confined  in  olden  days 
to  the  time  about  Martinmas,  extended  from  the  sixteenth  century  to 
about  Christmas,  and  since  then  prolonged  till  mid-Lent — is  a  slaughtering 
custom,  probably  of  purely  Germanic  growth.  Originally  the  real  animals 
destined  to  be  killed  were  dressed  up,  whilst  bye  and  bye,  in  part  at  least, 
artificial  animals  were  placed  in  their  stead.  The  domestic  male  animals 
which  had  been  kept  for  stud  purposes  to  the  close  of  the  season  were 
killed  at  the  beginning  of  December — December  5  being,  in  ancient  Tirol, 
the  day  for  killing  the  boar.  The  slaughtering  of  these  animals  was  a 
kind  of  public  affair,  since,  wherever  the  Markgenossenschaft  existed,  only 
one  bull,  one  stallion,  and  one  boar  were  kept  for  the  whole  community, 
so  that  those  who,  not  being  members  of  the  community,  wished  to  use 
the  animal  for  their  own  herds  had  to  pay  extra  for  it.^ 


^  Hans  Meyer's  Deutsches  Volkstuvi,  Leipzig,  1898,  p.  292. 

2 This  state  of  things  survived  in  Tyrol  down  to  1800:  "Hat  der  Stammser  zehend 
und  der  Mathias  Walch  .  .  .  ieder  einen  brauchbaren  herdstier  alter  observanz 
nach,  und  ein  ieweilliger  herr  pfarrer  den  s.  v.  schwilch  zu  stollen,  deren  der  eine 
von  Martini,  bis  mann  mit  dem  rever  kUevich  am  langets  auflfahrt,  und  der  andere 
von  Martini  an  bis  st.  Peters  tag  dienen  muss,  hingegen  aber  sind  diese  2  stier  in  denen 


ii6  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

That  Nicolaiis — familiar  to  English  children  as  Santa  Claus — is  not  a 
ghost  of  a  dead  person,  as  Dr.  Mogk  thinks,  need  scarcely  be  proved ;  and 
that  Knecht  Ruprecht  (German  Father  Christmas),  who  has  so  long  been 
thought  a  descendant  of  Wuotan  Hruodperaht  (Wodan  shining  in  glory) 
merely  represents  a  type  of  a  man  servant,  and  had  originally  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  Christmas,  was  proved  by  myself  in  1894.^  In  1832 
H,  Hoffmann  published,  in  the  Anzeiger  ficr  die  Kunde  der  deutschen  Vorzeit, 
a  conversation  between  master  and  servant,  in  which  the  servant  has  the 
name  Ruprecht,  being  called  ^^  Knecht  RuprechtJ"  The  conversation,  which 
belongs  to  the  sixteenth  century,  stands  in  no  connection  with  Christmas 
customs.  In  1847  J.  Scheible,  in  the  third  volume  of  his  Schaltjahr, 
reprinted  a  fly-leaflet  in  quarto  of  the  time  about  1530,  which  is  called  : 
"  Ein  Gesprdch  von  den  gemeinen  Schwabacher  Kasien,  ah  diirch  B ruder 
Heinrich,  Knecht  Ruprecht,  Kdmmerin,  Spuler,  und  ihretn  Meister,  des 
Handwerks  der  wollen  Tuchmacherr  Here  also  are  master  and  servant 
contrasted.  Here  also  every  connection  with  Christmas  is  lacking.  Here 
also  Knecht  Ruprecht  is  simply  a  Knecht,  a  servant,  who  might  as  well  be 
named  Knecht  alone.  From  these  two  cases  his  popular  significance 
appears  very  clearly :  he  is  the  popular  type  of  a  servant,  and  has  exactly 
as  much  individuality  of  social  rank  and  as  little  personal  individuality 
as  the  Junker  Hanns  and  the  Bauer  Michel,  the  characters  representative 
of  country  nobility  and  peasantry  respectively.  The  probable  cause  of  the 
combination  is  the  rime  of  Knecht  and  Ruprecht.  For  a  whole  century  after 
his  first  appearance  this  Knecht  Ruprecht  has  no  relationship  to  any  Christmas 
customs.  The  first  instance  in  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  he  appears  in 
a  Christmas  play  is  a  printed  Niirnberg  Christmas  procession  play,  the 
only  copy  of  which  known  to  me  is  preserved  at  the  Royal  Library  of 
Berlin.     It  is  printed  in    1668,    and   in    it   he   appears   as   the   servant   of 


gemeinds-alpen,  wo  sie  wollen,  frei  zu  sommern,  1801.  Fliess-Oberinnthal,"  Zingerle 
and  Inama-Sternegg,  Die  Tirolischen  Weistiimer,  II. ,  234.  About  the  payment  of  non-members 
of  the  community,  compare  Vol.  III.,  p.  182.  A  more  extensive  explanation  of  these  economic 
matters  is  contained  in  my  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Weihnacht,  Leipzig,  1893,  pp.  27-30 
and  297. 

*  Die  Zukunft,  Berlin,   1894,  Heft  12,    Winter sonnenwende,  p.  551. 


TABULA  FORTUNAE  117 

Holy  Christ.  The  list  of  characters  calls  him  Kindleififresser,  and  Christ 
addresses  him  as  Acesto.  But  the  stage  directions  call  him  Ruprecht^ 
and  he  himself  says  to  Holy  Christ  about  the  children :  "  Christe,  Du  thust 
recht  daran, — Dass  Du  keine  Bitt  nhnmst  an. — Ich  Dein  Knecht — Der 
Ruprecht^ —  Will  sie  striegeln —  Und  zerprugebi."  Through  these  little  printed 
plays,  Knecht  Ruprecht  as  a  character  of  Christmas  procession  plays  became 
popular  so  quickly,  that  as  early  as  1680  his  appearance  could  be  interdicted 
by  law,  and  the  term  Rupert  became  identical  with  spirit  from  below, 
so  that  a  minister  could  say  about  these  popular  Christmas  processions, 
that  in  the  suite  of  Christ  there  went  about,  ^' etliche  Rupert  oder  verdammte 
Geister:'  1 

Hitherto  no  proof  has  been  given  that  the  drinking  in  honour  of  the 
dead,  the  so-called  drinking  of  Minne^  was  confined  to,  or  even 
prevalently  occurring  on,  a  hypothetical  Germanic  mid-winter  festival.  As 
far  as  I  know,  alfablbt  and  disablbt^  offerings  for  elves  and  geniae  never 
occur  in  the  description  of  any  early  Scandinavian  Yule  festival,  so  that  an 
argument  as  to  the  Scandinavian  Yule  festival  being  a  dead-festival  cannot 
be  based  upon  that  fact.  These  offerings  took  place  late  in  winter,  or 
towards  the  end  of  winter,  but  not  at  midwinter,  which,  in  the  later 
terminology,  would  be  identical  with  "at  Yule-tide." ^  And  if  in  late 
sources  even  giants  are  said  to  have  taken  part  in  Yule  feasting,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  this  can  support  the  supposition  that  the  Yule  feast 
was  a  festival  for  the  dead.^     If  Professor  Mogk  explained  the  Voigtlandic 


^  {Drechsuler)  Curioser  Bericht  wegeti  der  schdndlichen  Weynacht  Larven,  so  man 
insgenuin  Heiligen  Christ  nennet,  heratisgegeben  Von  MM.,  Dressden  und  Leipzig,  1702. 
There  seems  to  be  an  older  Latin  edition  of  this  pamphlet :  Christiattorum  Larvas 
natalitias  Satuii  Christi  nomine  commendaias  post  evolutam  originem  confodit  stylo 
theologico  conscientiosus  Christi  cultor  Chresulder  (ed.  auctior  cum  apologia,  Lipsiae  anno 
1677,  12°),  which  I,  however,  have  never  seen. 

■^  Minnetrinken ;  minne  has  the  same  stem  with  Latin  memini  and  Greek  iaiivi\aKU). 

^  According  to  the  Olafssaga  ins  Helga,  80,  Sighvatr  the  Scald  came  late  in  winter  to  a 
farm  in  which  alfabldt  was  celebrated  (Mogk,  Mythologie  in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  ger- 
manischen  Fhilologie,  I.,  1 126). 

*Ibid.,  according  to  Maurer,  Bekehrung  des  norwegischen  Stammes  zuin  Christentum, 
Miinchen,  1855-56,  IL,  235. 


Il8  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

name  Unterndchte  as  being  the  nights  of  the  subterranean  beings,  of  the 
"  Unterirdischen"  I  as  early  as  1893  ^  proved  that  to  be  erroneous ;  and 
it  makes  evident  Professor  Weinhold's  carelessness  that  he,  in  his  review 
of  my  book,2  accuses  me  of  following  Mogk  in  his  erroneous  explanation.^ 
Whether  there  was  a  Germanic  commemoration  tide  for  the  dead  is 
very  uncertain.  Shrovetide  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  period,  and 
that  festive  time  a  relic  of  it.  It  is  true,  besides  the  Scandinavian 
customs  just  mentioned,  we  have  express  testimony  from  the  sixth  century 
that  it  was  at  February  22,  when  the  Germanics  made  offerings  to  their 
dead.*  But  therein  they  followed  again  the  course  of  the  Romans,  whose 
festival  of  the  dead,  the  Ferialia,  was  held  on  February  21. 


^  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Weihnacht,  p.  282:  "  Der  Voigtlandische  Name  'Unter- 
ndchte,' den  Mogk,  Mythologie,  11 26  (Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie,  1891, 
I. ),  als  Nachte  der  Toten  deutet,  bedeutet  nur  '  Nachte  vor  dem  Feste '  (vor  Epiphanias 
[das  oberster  Tag  heisst:  Oberster  tag,  obrister  tag,  obroster  tag,  oberstag,  uberster  tag, 
zu  obersten,  am  hailigen  obersten,  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung  des  Mittelalters  und  der  Neuzeit, 
1891,  I.,  p.  137])  wie  'unter  Mittag '  eigentlich  die  Zeit  unmittelbar  vor  Mittag,  '  tiber 
Mittag'  die  Zeit  unmittelbar  nach  Mittag  bedeuten,bis  dann  beide  'um  Mittag'  heissen.  So 
heisst  Weihnachten  lateinisch  sub  calendas  januarias ( Beatus  Rhenanus,  Rer.  Germ. ,  Lib.  IIL ). " 

"^  Zeitschrift  des   Vereins  fur  Volkskunde,   1874,   Heft  I.,   p.    100. 

^"Nur  wolle  man  das  nicht,  wie  E.  Mogk,  und  ihm  nach  A.  Tille  thun,  durch  den 
vogtlandischen  Namen  der  Zwolften  Unterndchte  beweisen,  der  nichts  als  Zwischenvi.i.c!aX.& 
bedeutet:  die  Nachte  zwischen  Weihnacht  und  Epiphanias."  After  the  examples  ol oberster 
tag  I  gave  above,  I  need  scarcely  state  that  Weinhold's  explanation  as  ^' Zwischenndchte" 
is  probably  wrong  also.  In  Hans  Meyer's  Deutsches  Volkstum,  Leipzig,  1898,  p.  292, 
Professor  Mogk  repeated  the  error  that  the  ancient  Germanics  celebrated  a  dead  festival 
in  the  darkest  time  of  the  year,  but  gave  up  his  former  explanation  of  Unterndchte, 
adopting  instead  the  explanation  suggested  by  Professor  Weinhold. 

*  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  365,  Concilium  Turonense  II., 
A.D.  567,  xxii. :  "  Sunt  etiam  qui  in  festivitate  cathedrae  domni  Petri  apostoli  cibos  mortuis 
offerunt,  et  post  missas  redeuntes  ad  domos  proprias,  ad  gentilium  revertuntur  errores,  et 
post  corpus  Domini,  sacratas  daemoni  escas  accipiunt.  Contestamur  illam  solicitudinem 
tarn  pastores  quam  presbyteros  gerere,  ut  quemcumque  in  hac  fatuitate  persistere  viderint 
vel  ad  nescio  quas  petras,  aut  arbores,  aut  ad  fontes,  designata  loca  gentilium,  perpetrare 
quae  ad  ecclesiae  rationem  non  pertinent ;  eos  ab  ecclesia  sancta  auctoritate  repellant,  nee 
participare  sancto  altario  permittant,  qui  gentilium  observationes  custodiunt."  The  same 
habit  seems  referred  to  in  caput  Ixix.  of  the  Capitula  Martini  Episcopi  Bracarensis,  Ibid., 
Vol.  III.,  col.  398:  "Non  liceat  Christianis  prandia  ad  defunctorum  sepulchra  deferre,  et 
sacrificare  de  re  mortuorum  "  (about  A.D.   575). 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE  NATIVITY  OF   CHRIST. 


For  centuries  after  Julius  Caesar  had  ordered  the  winter  solstice  to  take 
place  on  December  25,  the  Brumaiia,  celebrated  at  that  date,  could  not 
compete  in  splendour  with  the  Calends  of  January.  Their  later  fame 
and  significance  they  owe  not  to  ancient  Rome,  but  to  the  new  religion 
which,  since  the  first  century  of  our  era,  was  spreading  in  all  directions  from 
Palestine.  They  owe  it  to  Christianity.  The  year  in  which  the  two, 
Brumalia  and  Christianity,  were  brought  into  contact  by  an  energetic  Roman  ^  -^H 

bishop  was  a.d.  354. 

The  historical  date  of  Christ's  birth  is  unknown  \  and  though  some  early 
fathers  of  the  Church  tried  to  find  out  by  speculation  at  what  date  He  ought 
to  have  been  born,  the  matter  apparently  lacked  interest  for  the  Church. 
November  17  and  March  28  were  contended  for,  but  without  any  success,  as 
the  date  oTThe  miraculous  birth  in  the  stable  at  Bethlehem.  Clemens  of  — • 
Alexandria  was  as  little  able  to  gain  authority  for  the  former  date  as  a  writing  ' 
on  Easter  ascribed  to  Cyprian  was  to  gain  it  for  the  latter. 

'The  early  Church  did  not  regard  Christ  as  a  God  from  birth,  but  merely 
as  having  become  one  when  He  was  thirty  years  old,  and  when  the  Holy 
Ghost  descended  upon  Him  at  the  baptism  in  Jordan^  Distinct  traces  of 
that  dogma  are  even  preserved  in  the  common  text  of  the  New  Testament,^ 

^  Gospel  according  to  St.  Alatthew,  i.  i6,  where,  for  the  purpose  of  proving  that  Christ 
was  a  descendant  of  David,  it  is  shown  that  His  father  Joseph  was  such  :  "  And  Jacob  begat 
Joseph  the  husband  of  Mary,  of  whom  was  bom  Jesus,  who  is  called  Christ."     The  medieval 
Church  noticed  this  incongruity,  and  got  over  it  by  decreeing  that  Mary  had  been  a  cousin    ' 
of  Joseph's,  and  consequently  of  the  same  stock  as  he  was. 


I20  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

the  Gospels  of  St.  Mark  and  St.  John  beginning  with  that  story,  as  being 
the  first  important  event  in  Christ's  career.  The  festival  in  commemoration 
of  the  deification  of  Christ  was  Epiphany — the  festival  of  Christ's  appearance 
in  the  glory  of  God,  as  it  was  called  later.  Along  with  Easter  and  Pentecost 
it  is,  in  the  early  Church,  named  as  one  of  the  three  greatest  Church  festivals. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  there  arose  in  the  Western 
countries  a  new  opinion  on  the  person  of  the  Saviour.  He  was  now  held  to 
.^  have  been  a  God  from  birth,  His  Father  having  been  God  Himself.  It  was  the 
Church  of  Rome  which  made  itself  the  advocate  of  this  doctrine,  and  evolved 
the  necessary  basis  for  it  in  her  own  Gospel,  which  is  called  "according  to 
St.  Luk^r'  Within  little  more  than  a  century  that  new  dogma  conquered  the 
countries  round  the  Mediterranean,  though  it  seems  never  to  have  reached 
the  far  East.  In  the  face  of  that  view  it  could  scarcely  any  longer  appear 
proper  to  celebrate  the  memory  of  the  deification  of  Christ  in  the  festival 
of  Epiphany  on  January  6.  It  was  the  Roman  Bishop  Liberius  (a.d.  352-366) 
who  had  the  courage  to  draw  the  consequence  from  the  new  belief.  On 
[y'  January  6,  354,  he  celebrated,  as  before,  the  appearance  of  Christ  in  God-like 
glory,  but  in  the  same  year  he  celebrated  a  second  birthday  of  the  God 
in  Christ  on  December  25,  and  used  henceforth  all  his  authority  to  lead  this 
new  festival  to  victory  throughout  the  whole  Church.  The  mere  choice  of 
the  day  shows  that  the  step  which  was  taken  had  been  considered  well 
beforehand.^ , 

The  assumed  days  of  solstices  and  equinoxes  were  days  with  regard  to 
which  the  Julian  calendar  had  not  been  consistent.  Whilst  attaching  all 
possible  importance  to  them  and  making  them  the  measure  of  the  duration 
of  the  year,  it  did  not  make  them  the  beginnings  of  months,  nor  the  winter 
solstice  the  beginning  of  the  year.  Its  year  rather  began  seven  days  (or,  as 
it  was  counted  then,  eight  days)  after  the  winter  solstice.  When  Bishop 
Liberius  made  his  choice  of  a  new  birthday  for  the  Redeemer,  he  was  no 
doubt  conscious  of  the  fact  that  thereby   he  would  get  into  his  hands   a 

^Christ's  birthday  on  December  25  is  first  mentioned  in  the  chronology  of  Furius 
Dionysius  Filocalus  (Usener,  Das  Weihnachtsfest,  Bonn,  1889,  p.  267),  where  the  year 
begins  with  December  25,  and  the  entiy :  "viii.  Kl.  ianu.  natus  Christus  in  Betleem 
Judeae." 


THE  NATIVITY  OF  CHRIST  121 

means  of  beating,  in  the  long  run,  the  entire  Roman  calendar — an  idea  for 
which  the  Church  fought  for  a  whole  millennium,  though  without  ever  winning 
a  complete  victory ;  so  that  the  doctrinaire  and  unpractical  Roman  beginning 
of  the  year,  though  a  little  reformed  by  a  Pope  himself,  now  rules  the  time 
wherever  Christian  civilisation  has  come.  But  the  new  festival  at  least 
conquered,  or  did  even  more.  Whilst  Easter,  having  a  basis  beyond  the-^ 
world  of  the  Roman  calendar,  and  therefore  being  something  strange 
to  the  Western  world,  gave  rise  to  endless  discussions  about  the  proper  date 
of  its  celebration  and  to  two  different  traditions,^  Christmas  from  its  very 
first  origins  bore  the  mark  of  being  a  Roman  creation,  stood  firmly  on  the 
basis  of  the  Roman ^  system  of  the  year,  and  in  the  course  of  time  even 
managed  to  shake  that  very  system,  by  jnaking  itself  the  beginning  of  the 
year  instead  of  the  Roman  Calends  of  January.  Up  to  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  its  sanctity  was  never  disputed,  neither  was  its  historical 
foundation  attacked,  so  that,  if  not  outshining  in  splendour  Easter  and 
Whitsunday,  it  soon  gained  a  position  certainly  equal  to  theirs. 

fWith  the  triumph  won  by  the  belief  of  Athanasius  and  the  heirs  of  St. 
Peter  at  Rome,  the  new  custom  of  the  Roman  Church  came  to  the  East. 
In  Constantinople  the  first  festival  of  Christ's  birth  on  December  25  was 
celebrated  in  379,  in  Nyssa  of  Cappadocia  in  382,  in  Antioch  in  388.^ 
It  took  about  a  century  and  a  half  to  win  for  it  legal  authority  among  the 
Eastern  Germanics.  ;  By  the  commentary  to  the  Law  Book  of  Alarich, 
which  originated  with  it  in  506,  Christ's  birthday  became  a  day  on  which  no 
law  courts  were  allowed  to  be  held.  In  Eastern  Rome  it  gained  the  same 
position  not  much  later,  the  Codex  'jfustinianus  of  543  ordaining  it  to  be  a 
dies  nefastus.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Church  tried  to  make  it  a  real  day  of 
worldly  joy,  excluding  from  it  all  fasting  as  early  as  a.d.  561.* 

^Beda,  Historia  Ecdesiastka,  III.,  3,  25,  26. 

^  Beda  knew  the  bearing  of  that  difference  between  the  two  festivals  quite  well.  Com- 
paring Easter  and  Christmas,  he  says  {De  Temporibus,  chap,  xv.) :  "  Ideo  autem  pascha  non 
ad  eundem  redit  anni  diem,  sicut  tempus  Dominicae  nativitatis,  quod  ibi  nativitatis  ipsius 
memoria  tantum  solemnis  habeatur :  hie  vero  vitae  venturae  et  mysteria  celebrentur,  et 
munera  capiantur."  , 

^Usener,  Das  Weihnachtsfest,  pp.  262,  247,  238. 

^The  Cotuilium  Bracarense  oi  tjo\  ordains:  "Siquis  Natalem  Christi  secundum  camera 


X 


122  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

The  new  day  of  Christ's  deification  could  only  be  successful  in  outshining 
the  old  one  if  it  was  celebrated  earlier  than  the  old  one  and  at  the  same 
time  with  higher  splendour.  Although  everything  was  done  in  that  direction, 
attempts  were  not  lacking  to  build  a  bridge  from  the  new  day  to  the  old  one, 
by  proclaiming  holy  the  twelve  days  between  them.  This  was  done  as  early 
as  the  fourth  century  by  Ephraim  the  Syrian,  and  became  bye  and  bye  an 
ecclesiastical  institution;  so  that  the  Synod  of  Tours  of  567  declared  it  to 
be  a  festive  tide  of  the  Church  under  the  name  AioSeKa-q/xepov  or  Twelve-days 
tide — called  on  Germanic  soil,  several  centuries  later,  the  Twelve  nights — and 
in  the  course  of  time  becoming  so  popular  that  a  thousand  years  later  so 
great  a  mythologist  as  Professor  Weinhold  could  mistake  them  for  a  relic 
of  ancient  Germanic  worship. 

After  having  gained  a  new  centre  at  Rome,  Christianity  went  out  to 
convert  the  nations — following  in  the  footsteps  of  old  Roman  civilisation. 
It  spread  over  Gaul  and  came  to  the  Rhine,  in  the  sixth  century  passed  the 
Rhine,  and  in  the  course  of  two  other  centuries  won  over  almost  all  the 
Western  Germanics.  Wherever  it  came  it  fought  against  heathen  custom, 
whether  Roman,  Celtic,  or  Germanic ;  and  in  pressing  Christ's  birthday, 
Pasch  and  Pentecost,  as  the  main  festivals  of  the  new  faith,  had  to  fight 
a  hard  struggle  with  hard-headed  Germanics.  The  Edicts  of  the  Councils 
of  the  Church,  especially  of  those  held  in  Gaul,  are  eloquent  documents 
on  the  various  ways  in  which  the  Germanics  and  their  evil  demons  attempted 
to  put  Christ's  Church  to  shame,  and  on  the  energetic  ways  in  which  the 
representatives  of  the  right  belief  frustrated  that  audacious  undertaking. 

To  Great  Britain  Christianity  had  come  about  4»Ei-iQa  from  Asia  Minor, 
and  spread  somewhat  in  the  course  of  the  third  century,  so  that  the  perse- 
cution of  the  Christians  by  Diocletian  (284-305)^  threw  its  shadows  over 
this  country  as  over  others.  When  some  time  later  three  heathen  Germanic 
tribes  crossed  the  Channel — the  Angles,  the  Saxons,  and  the  Jutes — 
Christian  tradition  on  British  soil  was  not  entirely  interrupted,  although  it 

non  bene  honorat,  sad  honorare  se  simulat,  jejunans  in  eodem  die,  et  in  Dominico :  quia 
Christum  in  vera  hominis  natura  natum  esse  non  credit,  sicut  Cerdon,  Marcion,  Manichaeus, 
et  Priscillianus  anathema  sit."    Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  17 14,  III.,  col.  348. 
^  Beda,  Historia  Ecclesiastica  Geniis  Anglorum,  chap.  vi. 


y 


THE  NATIVITY  OF  CHRIST  123 

seems  not  to  have  specially  flourished.  It  was  in  592  that  Pope  Gregory 
the  Great  sent  the  first  Roman  missionaries  to  Britain,  led  by  Augustine, 
who  was  to  be  their  bishop  if  they  should  succeed.  They  were  kindly 
received  by  King  Ethelbert  of  Kent,  and  settled  in  Canterbury.  The  ancient 
,  British  Christian  Church,  having  sprung  up  in  the  second  century  from  Asia 
'Minor,  cannot  have  had  any  celebration  of  Christ's  nativity  on  December  25. 
So  the  first  celebration  of  that  festival,  it  must  be  assumed,  was  held  in 
Britain  in  592  by  Augustine  and  his  fellow-missionaries,  though  we  have  no 
knowledge  of  that  fact.  If  there  was  such  a  celebration,  it  consisted, 
in  all  probability,  in  a  specially  splendid  mass,  and  was  supported  by  worldly 
dining  and  drinking.^ 

From  the  famous  letter  of  Pope  Gregory  the  Great  to  the  Abbot 
Mellitus  in  Britain  we  know  that,  so  late  as  the  end  of  the  sixth  century, 
the  Pope  attached  the  principztl^  weight  to  the  celebration  of  the  proper 
sacred  days^  however  heathenish  the  customs  might  be  of  which  that 
celebration  consisted,  provided  only  that  what  so  far  had  been  done  in 
honour  of  the  heathen  demons  was  now  done  in  honour  of  the  one  God 
of  the  heavens,  and  if  it  took  the  shape  of  offering  and  feasting.^ ' 


^Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba  (a.d.  521-597)  (Adamnani  Vita  S.  Columbae,  edited 
from  Dr.  Reeves's  Text,  with  an  Introduction  on  early  Irish  Church  History,  Notes,  and  a 
Glossary  by  J.  T.  Fowler,  Oxford,  Clarendon  Press,  1894),  which  belongs  to  the  first  half 
of  the  eighth  century  and  to  Ireland  and  lona,  knows  of  Christmas  as  being  one  of  the  two 
great  festivals  of  the  Church,  the  other  being  the  Paschales  dies  (Ibid.,  p.  46).  It  names  it 
Natalitium  Domini.  It  tells  of  a  manuscript  by  Columba  which  remained  in  the  water 
uninjured  from  Christmas  to  Easter:  "Qui  videlicet  libellus,  a  Natalitio  Domini  usque  ad 
Paschalium  consummationem  dierum  in  aquis  permanens  .  .  .  postea  repertus"  (Ibid.,  p.  79, 
Book  II.,  chap,  ix.);  whilst  elsewhere  the  dies  natalis  of  a  saint  is  the  day  on  which  he  died, 
i.e.,  was  bom  into  heaven,  the  word  usually  applied  to  the  birthday  of  a  saint  being  nativitas. 
Compare  Fowler's  book,  p.  124,  note  :  "  Quia  ut  saeculo  et  mundo  moriuntur,  ita  tunc  caelo 
nascuntur"  (Beleth,  Div.  Off.,  4).  Of  course,  in  this  case  the  evidence  is  lacking  that 
the  story  was  told  the  same  way  during  Columba's  life-time. 

2  Venerabilis  Baedae  Historiam  Ecdesiasticam  Gentis  Anglonim,  Historiam  Abbaium, 
Epistolam  ad  Ecgberctum  una  cum  Historia  Abbaium,  Auctore  Anonymo  ad  fidem  codicum 
manuscriptorum  denuo  recognovit  commentario  tarn  critico  quam  historico  instruxit  Carolus 
Plummer,  Tomus  Prior,  Oxonii,  1896,  p.  65  (chap,  xxx.) :  "  Cum  ergo  Deus  omnipotens  vos 
ad  reverentissimum  virum  fratrem  nostrum  Augustinum  episcopum  perduxerit,  dicite  ei, 
quid   diu   mecum   de   causa   Anglorum   cogitans   tractavi ;   videlicet,   quia   fana   idolorum 


124  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

So  Germanic  and  Roman  customs  were  drawn  to  those  festivals  by  the 
Christian  missionaries,  just  for  the  purpose  that  those  festive  days  might 
at  least  be  celebrated,  and  new  Church  customs,  partly  of  Oriental  heathen 
origin,  were  introduced  in  order  to  compete  with  the  native  custpms 
originally  belonging  to  other  days  of  the  year.  A  second  stage  in  that 
evolution  of  Christian  festivals  on  Germanic  ground  is  that  the  Church 
began  to  combat  the  very  same  native  customs  which  it  first  had  drawn 
to  its  new  festivals,  and  to  interdict  them  wherever  they  might  occur.  Of 
that  stage  also  the  Edicts  of  the  Church  Councils  afford  abundant  proof. 
Whilst  up  to  about  a.d.  550  they  fight  against  the  participation  of  Christians 
in  heathen  festivals,  after  that  date  they  start  a  struggle  against  heathen 
and  heterodox  usages  practised  on  the  festivals  of  the  Church.  This 
second  attempt,  however,  seems  to  have  been  less  successful,  or,  at  least, 
to  have  succeeded  much  more  slowly.  It  was,  apparently,  easier  to  induce 
those  Germanic  tribes  to  alter  the  days  of  their  celebrations  than  to 
practise  new  usages  altogether.^     Just  as,  according  to   the   letter  of  Pope 

destrui  in  eadem  gente  minime  debeant  ;  sed  ipsa,  quae  in  eis  sunt,  idola 
destruantur ;  aqua  benedicta  fiat,  in  eisdem  fanis  aspergatur,  altaria  construantur,  reliquiae 
ponantur.  Quia,  si  fana  eadem  bene  constructa  sunt,  necesse  est,  ut  a  cultu  daemonum 
in  obsequio  veri  Dei  debeant  commutari ;  ut  dum  gens  ipsa  eadem  fana  sua  non  videt 
destrui,  de  corde  errorem  deponat,  et  Deum  verum  cognoscens  ac  adorans,  ad  loca,  quae 
consuevit,  familiarius  concurrat,  Et  quia  boves  solent  in  sacrificio  daemonum  multos 
occidere,  debet  eis  etiam  hac  de  re  aliqua  sollemnitas  immutari ;  ut  die  dedicationis,  vel 
natalitii  sanctorum  martyrum,  quorum  illic  reliquiae  ponuntur,  tabemacula  sibi  circa  easdem 
ecclesias,  quae  ex  fanis  commutatae  sunt,  de  ramis  arborum  faciant,  et  religiosis  conviviis 
sollemnitatem  celebrent ;  nee  diabolo  iam  animalia  immolent,  et  ad  laudem  Dei  in  esu 
suo  animalia  occidant,  et  donatori  omnium  de  satietate  sua  gratias  referant ;  ut  dum 
eis  aliqua  exterius  gaudia  reservantur,  ad  interiora  gaudia  consentire  facilius  valeant. 
Nam  duris  mentibus  simul  omnia  abscidere  impossibile  esse  non  dubium  est,  quia  et  is, 
qui  summum  locum  ascendere  nititur,  gradibus  vel  passibus,  non  autem  saltibus  elevatur. 
Sic  Isiaelitico  populo  in  Aegypto  Dominus  se  quidem  innotuit ;  sed  tamen  eis  sacrificiorum 
usus,  quae  diabolo  solebat  exhibere,  in  cultu  proprio  reservavit,  ut  eis  in  suo  sacrificio 
animalia  immolare  praeciperet ;  quatinus  cor  mutantes,  aliud  de  sacrificio  amitteient, 
aliud  retinerent ;  ut  etsi  ipsa  essent  animalia,  quae  ofiferre  consueverant,  vero  tamen 
Deo  haec  et  non  idolis  immolantes,  iam  sacrificia  ipsa  non  essent." 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  334,  Childeberti  Regis  Constitutio 
sive  Constitutionis  quae  supersunt  Capita  duo  (511-558);  Boretius,  Capitularia  Regum 
Francorum,  I.,  2:  "Ad  nos  querimonia  processit,  multa  sacrilegia   in  populo  fieri,  unde 


THE  NATIVITY   OF  CHRIST 


125 


Gregory  to  Mellitus,  it  was  the  policy  of  the  Church  to  change  the  places 
of  heathen  cult  into  places  of  worship  of  the  God  of  the  Christians,  the 
new  Christian  churches  are  expressly  and  more  than  once  reported  to 
have  been  used  for  celebrations  after  the  old  Celtic  and  Germanic 
manners,^  and  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century  the  repetition 
of  an  interdict  of  that  habit  was  thought  expedient.^  Nay,  the  very  festivals 
of  the  new  religious  community  were  constantly  used  for  celebrations 
according  to  ancient  heathen  Germanic  customs.^    Certainly  Professor  Koegel 


Deus  laedatur,  et  populus  per  peccatum  declinet  ad  mortem.  Noctes  pervigiles  cum 
ebrietate,  scurrilitate,  vel  canticis,  etiam  in  ipis  sacris  diebus  Pascha,  Natale  Domini,  et 
reliquis  festivitatibus,  vel  adveniente  die  Dominico,  dansatrices  per  villas  ambulare.  Haec 
omnia,  unde  Deus  agnoscitur  laedi,  nullatenus  fieri  permittimus.  Quicunque  post 
commonitionem  sacerdotum,  vel  nostmm  praeceptum,  sacrilegia  ista  perpetrare  praesump- 
serit,  si  servilis  persona  est,  centum  ictus  flagellorum  ut  suscipiat  iubemus :  si  vero 
ingenuus  aut  honoratior  fortasse  persona  est,  districta  inclusione  digna.  Sunt  hi  autem 
in  poenitentiam  redigendi :  ut  qui  salubria  et  a  mortis  periculo  revocantia  audire  verba 
contemnunt,  cruciatus  saltern  corporis  eos  ad  desiderandam  mentis  valeat  reducere 
sanitatem." 

'  Council  of  Atitun  (573-603),  chap,  ix.,  in  Concilia  cevi  Merowingici,  ed.  Frid. 
Maassen,  Hannover,  1893,  P-  i^o :  "  Non  licet  in  ecclesia  choros  saecularium  vel 
puellarum  cantica  exercere  nee  convivia  in  ecclesia  praeparare,  quia  scriptum  est :  domus 
mea  domus  orationis  vocabitur." 

2  Statuta  Bonifacii,  chap.  xxi.  :  "  Non  licet  in  ecclesia  choros  secularium  vel  puellarum 
cantica  exercere  nee  convivia  in  ecclesia  praeparare." 

^  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  445,  Cotuilium  Autissiodorense, 
A.D.  578,  Canon  xi.  :  "Non  licet  in  vigilia  paschae  ante  horam  secundam  noctis 
vigilias  perexplere,  quia  in  ilia  nocte  non  licet  post  mediam  noctem  bibere  [nee 
manducare],  nee  in  Natali  Domini,  nee  in  reliquis  solemnitatibus. "  Jbid.,  Vol.  III., 
col.  444,  Canons  iii.  and  v.  :  "  Canon  iii.  Non  licet  compensos  in  domibus  propriis, 
nee  pervigilias  in  festivitatibus  sanctorum  facere ;  nee  inter  sentes,  aut  ad  arbores  sacrivos, 
vel  ad  fontes  vota  exsolvere :  sed  quicumque  votum  habuerit,  in  ecclesia  vigilet, 
et  matriculae  ipsum  votum,  aut  pauperibus  reddat:  nee  sculptilia  [sub  tilia]  aut 
pede,  aut  homine  lineo  fieri  penitus  praesumat.  Canon  v.  Omnino  et  inter  supradictas 
conditiones,  pervigilias,  quas  in  honore  domni  Martini  observant,  omnimodis  prohibet." 
Council  of  Chalons-sur-Sadne  (639-654),  chap,  xix.,  in  Concilia  cevi  Merowingici,  ed.  Frid. 
Maassen,  Hannover,  1893,  p.  212:  "Valde  omnibus  nuscetur  e«se  decretum,  ne  per 
dedicationes  basilicarum  aut  festivitates  martyrum  ad  ipsa  solemnia  confluentes  obscina 
et  turpea  cantica,  dum  orare  debent  aut  clericos  psallentes  audire  cum  choris  foemineis, 
turpia  quidem,  decantare  videantur." 


126  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

is  wrong  when^  he  expresses  the  opinion  that  these  days  of  saints  were 
just  the  ancient  Germanic  festive  days  on  which  people  continued  their 
old  practice  of  worship.^  /Among  these  Church  festivals  used  for  popular 
rejoicing  were,  of  oourse,  the  Sundays  and  the  two  greatest  festivals  of  the 
sixth  century  Church — Christmas  and  Easter  ^i — at  which  processions  after  the 
ancient  Celtic  and  Germanic  fashion  apparently  were  very  frequent  in 
the  Gaul  of  the  early  sixth  century."*  It  is  to  be  admitted  that,  in  fixing 
the  saints'  days,  the  Church  had  a  certain  liberty,  although  very  many  of 
them  had  definitely  been  marked  down  before  any  Germanic  tribe  got 
anything  like  a  decisive  influence  over  Church  affairs ;  but  the  three  festivals, 
Epiphany,  Easter,  and  Pentecost — or,  as  they  run  in  the  Western  countries 
from  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Pentecost — 
were  absolutely  fixed  previous  to  a  contact  of  the  supreme  authority  in  the 


^  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur  bis  zum  Ausgange  des  Mittelalters,  Strassburg, 
1894,  p.  25. 

2  Professor  Koegel,  Ibid.,  has  put  together  a  number  of  further  evidences  of  heathen  practices 
at  Christian  festive  days  :  "Caspari,  Kirchenhistorische  Anecdota,  Christiania,  1883,  pp.  176, 
188;  Benedictus  Levita,  VI.,  96,  in  Monumenta  Germaniae,  Scriptores,  IV.,  2;  Wasser- 
schleben,  Bussordnungen der  abendldndischen  Kirche,  p.  607  (Preuso-Theodorean  Penitential); 
Indiculus  Superstitionum:  De  Sacrilegiis  per  ecclesias  (among  the  Saxons  newly  converted); 
Regino  von  Priim,  ed.  by  Wasserschleben,  p.  179  (Council  of  Mayence,  813)  ;  Boretius, 
Capitularia  Regum  Francorum,  I.,  p.  376:  'Sunt  quidam,  et  maxime  mulieres,  qui  fastis 
ac  sacris  diebus  atque  sanctorum  nataliciis  non  pro  eorum  quibus  debent  delectantur 
desideriis  advenire,  sed  balando  et  verba  turpia  decantando,  choros  tenendo  ac  ducendo, 
similitudinem  paganorum  peragendo,  advenire  procurant.'" 

^Beda's  Letter  to  Egbert,  Bishop  of  York,  on  the  state  of  the  Northumbrian 
Church,  vi^hich  was  written  a.d.  734  (Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical 
Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  III.,  p.  323:  "Quod  videlicet  genus  religionis,  ac  Deo 
devotae  sanctificationis  tam  longe  a  cunctis  pene  nostrae  provinciae  laicis  per  incuriam 
docentium  quasi  prope  peregrinum  abest,  ut  hi  qui  inter  religiosiores  esse  videntur,  non 
nisi  in  Natali  Domini  et  Epiphania  et  Pascha  sacrosanctis  mysteriis  communicare 
praesumant "),  mentions  even,  as  the  three  festivals  of  the  Church  most  popular  in  his 
time,  Christmas,  Epiphany,  and  Easter. 

*  Rudolph  Koegel  as  late  as  1894  maintained  that  Christmas  and  Easter  were 
originally  Germanic  festivals  {Geschichte  der  deutschen  Literatur  bis  zum  Ausgang  des 
Mittelalters,  Strassburg,  1894,  !•>  P-  28);  but  that  part  of  his  book  was  printed  before  he 
had  come  to  know  my  own  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Weihnacht,  which  had  appeared 
in  Leipzig,  1893. 


THE   NATIVITY   OF   CHRIST  1 27 

Christian  Church  with  the  Germanics,  It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  anybody  what  a  number  of  singular  and  unexplainable  coincidences  would 
have  to  be  assumed,  if  each  of  these  festivals  had  fallen  on  a  'day  sancrosanct 
to  the  Germanics  before  their  contact  with  the  Romano-Christian  world  ! 

Professor  Weinhold  somewhat  underrates  the  power  and  influence  of 
Christianity  on  the  Germanic  nations.  What  a  poor  religion  would  it  require 
to  have  been  had  it  influenced  them  no  more  than  he  supposes  it  to  have 
done!  He  overlooks  the  world  of  tradition,  of  tales,  of  customs,  of  beliefs, 
it  called  into  existence,  and  has  some  feeling  that  he  does  a  patriotic  work 
when  he  ascribes  to  our  heathen  ancestors  all  those  creations  of  fancy,  and 
the  experience  of  life  and  the  human  heart,  which  the  religion  of  the  cross 
gave  them  as  an  entirely  unearned  present.  To  ascribe  to  Germanic 
heathendom  whatever  is  popular  among  the  Germanic  nations  in  modern 
times  means  nothing  but  to  assume  that  the  Germanics  were  touched  by  _ 
Christianity  only  in  the  most  superficial  way,  and  that  all  efforts  which  the 
Church  made  in  order  to  bring  home  to  the  Germanic  mind  its  institutions 
were  of  no  consequence. 

The  establishment  of  the  JDodekahemeron,  or  the  twelve  holy  days  from 
Christmas  to  Epiphany  whicK  was  mentioned  above,  was  one  of  the 
means  to  make  Christmas  an  important  feast.  Another  was  the  institution 
of  a  preparatory  tide  of  forty  days  which  immediately  preceded  it,  and 
which  gained  ground  after  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century,  spreading  from 
Gaul  over  almost  the  whole  Christian  world. 

The  Advent-tide,  with  its  beginning  at  Martinmas,  is  of  Gallic  growth,  that 
date  having  been  decidedly  fixed  under  Germanic  influence.  It  is  important, 
for  the  purpose  of  understanding  the  relation  between  Martinmas  and  the 
autumnal  equinox,  to  notice  that  there  was  in  the  early  Church  another  and 
later  Advent-tide,  which  competed  with  that  of  Gaul.  It  was  of  southern  growth, 
and  began  on  the  autumnal  equinox.  According  to  a  letter  which  pretends 
to  be  written  by  St.  Augustine  of  Hipporegius,  Numidia,  to  Biblianus,  Bishop 
of  Santonae,  Gaul,  living  about  450,^   the  Advent-tide  was  to   begin   on 

^"  Episcopus  Sanctonensis,"  now  Saintes  in  the  Departement  Charente-Inferieur.     Com- 
pare Potthast,  Wegweiser,  634;  Pfannenschmid,  Germanische  Erntefeste,  p.  514, 


128  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

September  24,  that  being  the  day  of  the  autumnal  equinox,  because  that 
was  the  day  of  the  conception  of  John  Baptist.  It  being  preserved  only 
in  a  manuscript  of  the  eighth  century,  and  stating  expressly  that  the 
beginning  of  the  holy  tide  with  the  equinox  was  more  fitting  than  its 
beginning  with  Martin's  burial-day,  it  cannot  have  been  written  before  the 
middle  of  the  sixth  century,  before  which  date  an  Advent-tide,  beginning 
with  Martinmas,  cannot  be  proved  to  have  existed.  It  is  clearly  a  falsifi- 
cation intended  to  supersede  the  Germanic  term  Martinmas  by  the  Italian 
term  of  the  autumnal  equinox,  of  which  the  Germanics  knew  nothing.  The 
Advent-tide,  beginning  with  Martinmas,  became  an  ecclesiastical  institution 
in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixth  century.^  It  was  the  policy  of  the  Church 
to  impress  on  people's  minds  its  three  great  festivals  by  making  each  of 
them  a  gay  time  of  worldly  joy,  and  by  rendering  their  gaiety  the  more 
4  attractive  by  letting  them  be  preceded  by  periods  of  strict  fasting,  which  were 
extended  to  forty  days  each,  a  space  of  time  which,  however,  seems  seldom 
to  have  been  exceeded.  To  be  sure  it  was  long  enough — the  three  fasting- 
tides  together  comprising,  as  they  did,  an  entire  third  of  a  year.  Nor 
were  the  saints'  days  times  of  penitence  or  fasting,  but  the  very  contrary. 
The  Judseo-Christian  and  also  Roman  conception  of  sanctifying  festive  days 
by  dropping  every  kind  of  work  was  understood  to  refer  to  the  toil  of 
every-day  life— to  business  and  law  proceedings  only — whilst  every  allowance 
was  made  for  enjoyment  of  various  kinds,  and,  above  all,  for  eating  and 
drinking.  In  truth,  it  was  not  before  the  time  immediately  following  the 
Reformation  that  another  view  was  taken  which  turned,  though  only  within  the 
small  area  of  Puritanism,  the  festive  days  of  the  Church  into  true  dies  nefasti 
of  Roman  strictness,  making  it  a  sin  to  enjoy  one's  self  in  any  way  on  a 
Sunday,  and  dropping  the  old  festivals  of  the  Catholic  Church  almost 
completely.  In  the  seventh  century,  even  the  worst  sinners  who  had  to 
do  penitence  for  fifteen  years  were  allowed  to  break  their  fasting  on  Sundays.^ 

1  "  Ut  a  feria  sancti  Martini  usque  ad  Natale  domini,  secunda,  quarta,  et  sexta  sabbati 
jejunetur,  et  sacrificia  quadragesimali  debeant  ordine  celebrari."  Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis, 
1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  452,  Concilium  Matisconense,  I.,  A.D.  581,  ix. 

^Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Doctiments,  Oxford,  1871,  III.,  179, 
Theodore's  Penitential,  ii.,  16:  "Si  cum  matre  quis  fornicaverit,  xv.  annos  peniteat,  et 
nunquam  mutet  nisi  Dominicis  diebus." 


THE   NATIVITY   OF   CHRIST  129 

As  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  three  Quadragestmae  occur  in  Britain  for  the 
first  time  shortly  before  a.d.  570.^  The  mention  of  them  without  any  specify- 
ing remark  presupposes  a  general  establishment  of  the  three  great  Church 
festivals,  as  to  which  it  is,  however,  uncertain  whether  the  third  was  Epiphany 
or  Christmas. 2  Whitsunday  and  Easter  are  for  the  first  time  mentioned 
between  a.d.  616  and  627. ^  a.d.  704  the  Strathclyde  Britains  adopted  the 
Roman  Easter.*  In  Armorica  the  first  Easter  is  mentioned  as  early  as 
A.D.  541,^  the  first  mentioning  of  Christmas  taking  place  in  598.^  Between 
A.D.  597  and  A.D.  604  Gregory  is  said  to  have  given  the  English  a  rule 
on  the  Ember  Feasts,  or  feasts  of  the  four  Roman  seasons  of  the   yearJ 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents  Relating  to  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland^  Oxford,  1869,  Vol.  I.,  p.  113,  in  Praefaiio  Gildae  de  Penitentia,  where  to  the 
penitent  sinner  it  is  permitted :  '  *  Per  tres  quadragesimas  superaddat  aliquid,  prout  virtus 
admiserit, " 

^The  mention  occurs  again  and  again.  Ibid.,  I.,  p.  114,  xi.  :  "Tres  quadragesimas;" 
xvii.  :  " Quadragesimam ;  duas  quadragesimas;"  Ibid.,  I.,  p.  117  (a.d.  569),  Sinodus 
Aquilonalis  Britanniae,  ii.  :  "  Tribus  quadragesimis  ; ''  iv.  :  "Tres  quadragesimas;"  Ibid., 
I.,  p.  118  (a.d.  569),  Excerpta  quaedam  de  Libra  Davidis,  ii.  :  "  Quadragesimam  ;  tribus 
quadragesimis." 

^ Ibid.,  I.,  124,  Nennius,  Appendix:  "  Eanfled  filia  illius  duodecimo  die  post  Pentecosten 
baptismum  accepit  cum  universis  hominibus  suis  de  viris  et  mulieribus  cum  ea.  Eadguin 
vero  in  sequenti  Pascha  baptismum  suscepit,  et  duodecim  millia  hominum  baptizati  sunt  cum 
eo;"  Ibid.,  L,  124  (a.d.  731),  Baedae  Historica  Ecclesiastica,  III.,  28:  "  Dominicum 
paschae  diem." 

^Ibid.,  II.,  ii.,  6,  and  II.,  ii.,  no,  Baedae  Hist.  Ecclesiastica,  V.,  15  :  "Quo  tempore 
plurima  pars  Scotorum  in  Hibernia,  et  nonnulla  etiam  de  Brittonibus  in  Brittannia,  rationabile 
et  ecclesiasticum  Paschalis  observantiae  tempus  Domino  donante  suscepit." 

®  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  II.,  Oxford,  1873,  P-  7S> 
Concil.  Aurelian.,  IV.,  Can.  i.  :  "  Placuit  itaque,  Deo  propitio,  ut  sanctum  Pascha  secundum 
laterculum  Victorii  ab  omnibus  sacerdotibus  uno  tempore  celebretur"  (in  Armorica);  Ibid., 
II.,  77  (A.D,  577,  590) ;  Greg.  Tur.,  V.,  17  (a.d.  577) :  "  Eo  anno  dubietas  Paschae  fuit," 
etc.     About  the  Easter  dispute,  compare  Beda,  Hist.  EccL,  III.,  3  and  25,  26. 

'^ Ibid.,  Vol.  III.,  Oxford,  1871,  p.  12,  Letter  by  Gregorius  to  Eulogius,  Bishop  of 
Alexandria :  "In  solemnitate  autem  Dominicae  Nativitatis  quae  hac  prima  indictione 
transacta  est  plus  quam  decem  milia  Angli  ab  eodem  [Augustino]  nuntiati  sunt  fratre  et 
coepiscopo  nostro  baptizati." 

"^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents  Relating  to  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  Vol.  III.,  Oxford,  1871,  p.  52  (after  Mansi,  X,,  446,  ex  Additamentis  ad 
Codicem  Burchardi,  who,  however,  is  inclined  to  regard  it  as  spurious,  following  therein 
Muratorius,    II.,   p.   262,  in   his  Dissertatio  de  Jejuniis   Quatuor   Temporum,  chap,  vii., 

I 


I30  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

That  Gregory  gave  that  rule  was  at  least  believed  in  the  English  Church 
of  the  eighth  century. 

Prescriptions  about  the  three  fasting  tides  are  very  frequent.^  Of  these 
periods  the  forty  days  preceding  Pasch  were  reckoned  the  holiest,^  at  least 
as  regards  chastity.     As  regards  abstinence  from  work  Sunday  stood  first.^ 


p.  449)  :  ' '  Haec  sunt  jejunia,  quae  S.  Gregorius  genti  Anglorum  praedicari  praecepit — 
Sunt  quatuor  jejunia  quatuor  temporum  anni ;  id  est,  veris,  aestatis,  autumni  et  hiemis. 
Jejunium  primum  in  prima  hebdomada  Quadragesimae ;  jejunium  secundum  in  hebdomada 
post  Pentecosten ;  jejunium  tertium  in  plena  hebdomada  ante  autumnale  aequinoctium  ; 
jejunium  quartum  in  plena  hebdomada  ante  natale  Domini.  Jejunium  in  feria  sexta  per 
totum  annum  nisi  a  Pascha  usque  ad  Pentecosten,  aut  si  major  festivitas  fuerit." 

^Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Comuils  and  Ecclesiastical  Docu??ienis,  Oxford,  1871,  III.,  p.  182, 
Theodore's  Penitential  (668-690),  VI.  i,  2:  "  Quis  perjurium  facit  in  ecclesia  undecim 
annos  peniteat.  (2)  Qui  vero  necessitate  coactus  sit  tres  quadragesimas."  Ibid.,  III.,  p.  184, 
viii.,  II  ;  Ibid.,  III.,  186,  xi.  :  "  De  his  qui  damnant  Dominicam  et  indicta  jejunia  ecclesiae 
Dei.  (i)  Qui  operantur  die  Dominico,  eos  Graeci  prima  vice  arguunt,  secunda  toUunt 
aliquid  ab  eis,  tertia  vice  partem  tertiam  de  rebus  eorum,  aut  vapulent,  vel  vii.  diebus 
peniteant.  (2)  Si  quis  autem  in  Dominica  die  pro  negligentia  jejunaverit,  ebdomadam 
totam  debet  abstinere ;  si  secundo,  xx.  dies  peniteat ;  si  postea,  XL.  dies.  (3)  Si  pro 
damnatione  diei  jejunaverit,  sicut  Judaeus  abominetur  ab  omnibus  ecclesiis  catholicis.  (4)  Si 
autem  contempserit  indictum  jejunium  in  ecclesia  et  contra  decreta  seniorum  fecerit  sine 
XLma,  XL.  dies  peniteat.  Si  autem  in  XLma,  annum  peniteat ;  si  quis  autem  contempserit 
XLmani ;  XL.  dies  peniteat.  (5)  Si  frequenter  fecerit,  et  in  consuetudine  erit  ei,  exterminetur 
ab  ecclesia.  Domino  dicente,  'Qui  scandalizaverit  unum  de  pusillis  istis'  et  reliqua." 
Ibid.,  III.,  196,  viii.:  "De  moribus  Graecorum  et  Romanorum.  (i)  In  Dominico 
Graeci  et  Romani  navigant  et  equitant,  panem  non  faciunt,  neque  in  curru  pergunt  nisi  ad 
ecclesiam  tantum,  nee  balneant  se.  (2)  Graeci  in  Dominica  non  scribunt  publice  ;  tunc  pro 
necessitate  seorsum  in  domu  scribunt.  (3)  Graeci  et  Romani  dant  servis  suis  vestimenta  et 
laborant  sine  Dominico  die.  ...  (5)  In  ilia  die  ante  Natale  Domini  hora  nona,  expleta 
missa,  id  est,  vigilia  Domini,  manducant  Romani,  Graeci  vero  dicta  vespera  et  missa 
coenant.  ...  (8)  Lavacrum  capitis  potest  in  Dominica  esse,  et  in  lexiva  pedes  lavare  licet, 
sed  consuetudo  Romanorum  non  est  haec  lavatio  pedum." 

"^ Ibid.,  III.,  199,  xii.  :  "  {2)  Vir  abstineat  se  ab  uxore  XL.  dies  ante  Pascha  usque  octavas 
Paschae,"  which  prescription  is  enlarged  in  another  version  by  the  addition :  "post  Pentecosten 
una  ebdomada"  \^Ibid.,  III.,  published  in  Cap.  Theodor.,  ed.  Wasserschleben,  No.  56). 

^Ibid.,  III.,  215,  King  Ine's  Laws,  touching  the  Church  (688-693;  probably  A.D.  693): 
iii.  "Gif  theowmon  wyrce  on  Sunnan-daeg  be  his  hlafordes  hsese,  sie  he  frioh ;  and  se 
hlaford  geselle  xxx.  scillingas  to  wite.  Gif  thonne  se  theowa  butan  his  gewitnesse  wyrce, 
tholie  his  hyde  [oththe  hyd-gyldes].  Gif  thonne  se  frigea  thy  dsege  wyrce  butan  his  hlafordes 
hsese  tholie  his  freotes  [oththe  sixtig  scillhigas  ;  and  preost  si  twy-scildig] " ;  the  same, 
Ibid.,  III.,  235,  Laws  of  Wihtred  (693-731),  9-11. 


THE  NATIVITY  OF  CHRIST 


131 


Nevertheless,  the  Church  had  considerable  difficulty  in  making  the  new 
Christians  see  a  difference  between  their  old  Germanic  and  the  new  Christian 
festivals.  The  Anglo-Saxons  came  to  church  dancing,  and  there  sang  their 
love-songs,  as  they  had  done  at  their  traditional  festivals,  so  that  this  kind 
of  thing  had  to  be  forbidden  in  England  as  it  had  to  be  on  the  Continent.^ 
Otherwise,  especially  as  regards  feasting  at  the  proper  times,  the  Church 
was  very  liberal.  Theodore's  Penitential  (a.d.  668-690)  regarded  it  as  an 
excuse  if  a  man  ate  too  freely  at  Christmas,  so  long  as  he  did  not  pass  the 
limits  allowed  by  the  Church. 2 

The  state  of  the  ecclesiastical  observance  of  Christmas  among  the 
people  about  Beda's  time  can  be  seen  from  several  Penitentials  contem- 
poraneous or  almost  contemporaneous.^ 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1 87 1,  III.,  227, 
in  the  Judicium  dementis,  probably  written  by  Willibrord  (690-693),  20 :  "Si  quis  in 
quacunque  festivitate  ad  ecclesiam  veniens  pallat  foris,  aut  saltat,  aut  cantat.  orationes 
amatorias,  ab  Episcopo  aut  presbytero  aut  clerico  excommunicetur  et,  dum  paenitentiam 
non  agit,  excommunicetur."  The  same  in  Kunstmann,  Die  Lateinischen  P'dnitentialbiicher 
der  Angelscuhsen,  p.  177,  and  Wasserschleben,  Die  Bussordnungen  der  Abendldndischen 
Kirche,  p.  433. 

^Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  III., 
p.  177  :  Liber  Primus  I.,  De  Crapula  et  Ebrietate.  "(4)  Si  vero  pro  infirmitate  aut  quia 
longo  tempore  se  abstinuerit,  et  in  consuetudine  non  erit  ei  multum  bibere  vel  manducare, 
aut  pro  gaudio  in  Natale  Domini  aut  in  Pascha  aut  pro  alicujus  Sanctorum  commemoratione 
faciebat,  et  tunc  plus  non  accipit  quam  decretum  est  a  senioribus,  nihil  nocet.  Si  Episcopus 
juberit,  non  nocet  illi,  nisi  ipse  similiter  faciat."  It  was  mentioned  above  that  the  Concilium 
Bracarense,  I.,  A.D.  561,  ordained  a  celebration  of  Christmas,  expressly  forbidding  any 
fasting  on  that  day  {Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1 7 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  348,  iii.  :  "Si  quis 
Natalem  Christi  secundum  camem  non  bene  honorat,  sed  honorare  se  simulat,  jejunans  in 
eodem  die,  et  in  Dominico  .  .  .  anathema  sit " ).  The  same  prohibition  occurs  as  late  as 
about  A.D,  725  {Acta  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1863,  Gregorii  Papae  II. 
(a.d.  715-731)  Capitulae,  x.  :  "  Ut  dominicis  diebus  doceantur  non  licere  omnino  jejunare, 
propter  resurrect ionis  dominicae  sacramentum,  neque  in  festivitatibus  Dominicis  Nativitatis, 
aut  Apparitionis,  sive  Ascensionis"). 

^Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  95-96;  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical 
Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  Vol.  III.,  412,  Dialc^ue  of  Egbert  between  a.d.  732  and 
766:  "  De  Quarto  Jejuni©:  Quartum  jejunium  mense  Novembrio  a  veteribus  colebatur, 
juxta  praeceptum  Domini  ad  Jeremiam  dicentis :  '  Tolle  volumen  libri,  et  scribe  in  eo 
omnia  verba,  quae  locutus  sum  adversus  Israel  et  Judam.  Et  factum  est  in  mense  nono, 
praedicaverunt  jejunium   in   conspectu    Domini   omni   populo   in    Jerusalem.'     Hac    ergo 


132 


YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 


Unwise  regulations  do  not  always  attain  the  purpose  for  which  they  are 
made.     Just  as  the  forty  days'  fast  preceding  the  Nativity  was  bound  to  lead  to 

auctoritate  Divinarum  Scripturarum  ecclesia  catholica  morem  obtinet,  et  jejunium  atque 
observationem  in  mense  celebrat  decimo,  sabbato  quarto,  propter  advenientem  venerabilem 
solemn itatem  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi ;  ubi  ante  plures  dies  et  continentia  carnis  et  jejunia 
exhibenda  sunt,  ut  unusquisque  fidelis  praeparet  se  ad  communionem  corporis  et  sanguinis 
Christi  cum  devotione  sumendam.  Quod  et  gens  Anglorum  semper  in  plena  ebdomada  ante 
Natale  Domini  consuevit,  non  solum  quarta  et  sexta  feria,  et  sabbato,  sed  et  juges  xii. 
dies  in  jejuniis,  et  vigiliis,  et  orationibus,  et  elemosinarum  largitionibus,  et  in  monasteriis, 
et  in  plebibus,  ante  Natale,  quasi  legitimum  jejunium  exercuisse  perhibetur.  Nam  haec, 
Deo  gratias,  a  temporibus  Vitaliani  papae,  et  Theodori  Dorobernensis  Archiepiscopi 
inolevit  in  ecclesia  Anglorum  consuetudo,  et  quasi  legitima  tenebatur,  ut  non  solum 
clerici  in  monasteriis,  sed  etiam  laici  cum  conjugibus  et  familiis  suis  ad  confessores  suos 
pervenirent,  et  se  fletibus  et  carnalis  concupiscentiae  consortio  his  duodecim  diebus  cum 
elemosinarum  largitione  mundarent,  quatenus  puriores  Dominicae  communionis  perceptionem 
in  Natale  Domini  perciperent.  Praeter  haec  namque  constituta  jejunia  quarta  et  sexta 
feria,  propter  passionem  Christi,  et  sabbato,  propter  quod  ipso  die  jacuit  in  sepulcro, 
plerique  jejunaverunt."  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  65,  Capitula  et  Fragmenta  Theodori 
Opei-um-.  "Jejunia  legitima  tria  sunt  in  anno  *  *  *  *  praeterea  quadraginta  ante 
Natale  Domini,  et  post  Pentecosten  quadraginta  dies."  Ibid.,  II.,  66:  "  Poenitentia 
illius  anni  unius,  qui  in  pane  et  aqua  jejunandus  est,  isto  ordine  observari  debet. 
Poenitentia  illius  anni  unius,  qui  in  pane  et  aqua  jejunandus  est,  talis  esse  debet  in 
unaquaque  hebdomada.  Tres  dies,  id  est  feriam  quintam  et  sabbatum,  a  vino,  medone, 
mellita  et  cervisia,  a  carne  et  sagimine,  a  caseo  et  ovis,  et  ab  omni  pingui  pisce  se 
abstineat.  Manducet  autem  minutos  pisciculos,  si  habere  potest.  Si  habere  non  potest, 
tantum  unius  generis  piscem,  et  legumina,  et  olera,  et  poma,  si  vult,  comedat,  et 
cervisiam  bibat ;  et  in  diebus  Dominicis,  et  in  Natali  Domini  illos  quatuor  dies ;  et  in 
Epiphania  unum  diem ;  et  in  Pascha,  usque  ad  octavum  diem ;  et  in  Ascensione  Domini, 
et  Pentecostes  quatuor  dies ;  et  in  festo  Sancti  Johannis  Baptistae,  et  Sanctae  Mariae,  et 
sanctorum  duodecim  Apostolorum,  et  Sancti  Michaelis,  et  Sancti  Remigii,  et  Omnium 
Sanctorum,  et  Sancti  Martini,  et  in  illius  Sancti  festivitate,  qui  in  illo  episcopatu 
Celebris  habetur.  In  his  supradictis  diebus  faciat  charitatem  cum  ceteris  Christianis, 
id  est,  utatur  eodem  cibo  et  potu  quo  illi,  sed  tamen  ebrietatem,  et  ventris 
ingluviem  semper  in  omnibus  caveat."  In  the  second  year  the  sinner  of  the  same  kind 
has  to  do  the  following :  ' '  Poenitentia  istius  anni  talis  esse  debet,  ut  duos  dies,  id  est 
secundam  feriam  et  quartam  in  unaquaque  hebdomada,  jejunet  ad  vesperam,  et  tunc 
reficiatur  sicco  cibo,  id  est,  de  pane  et  leguminibus  siccis  sed  coctis,  aut  pomis,  aut 
oleribus  crudis ;  unum  eligat  ex  his  tribus,  et  utatur,  et  cervisiam  bibat  sed  sobrie.  Et 
tertium  diem,  id  est,  sextam  feriam,  in  pane  el  aqua  observet,  et  tres  quadragesimas 
jejunet  ante  Natale  Domini  unam,  secundam  ante  Pascha,  tertiam  ante  niissam  Sancti 
Joannis.  Et  in  his  tribus  quadragesimis  jejunet  duos  dies  ad  nonam  in  hebdomada,  et 
de  sicco  cibo  comedat,  ut  supra  notatum  est.     Et  sextam  feriam  jejunet  in  pane  et  aqua, 


THE  NATIVITY  OF  CHRIST 


133 


gluttony  at  the  festival,  so  the  injunctions  about  the  sexual  relations  for  the 
same  forty  days  were  bound  to  have  reactionary  consequences  in  the  holy 
tide.i 


et  in  Dominicis  diebus,  et  in  Natali  Domini,  et  in  Pentecoste  quatuor  illos  dies ;  et  in 
Epiphania  unum  diem,  et  in  Pascha  usque  ad  septimum  diem,  et  in  Ascensione  Homini, 
et  in  missa  Sancti  loannis  Baptistae,  et  reliqua  ut  supra."  Ibid.,  II.,  68:  "De  illis  qui 
jejunare  non  possunt,  et  nesciunt  quomodo  poenitentiam  unius  anni,  quem  jejunare  debent 
in  pane  et  aqua,  redimere  possint.  Qui  vero  psalmos  non  novit,  et  jejunare  non  potest, 
pro  uno  anno,  quem  in  pane  et  aqua  jejunare  debet,  det  pauperibus  in  eleemosynam 
viginti  duos  solidos,  et  omnes  sextas  ferias  jejunet  in  pane  et  aqua,  et  tres  quadra- 
gesimas,  id  est,  quadraginta  dies  ante  Pascha,  quadraginta  dies  ante  festivitatem  Sancti 
Johannis  Baptistae  (et  si  ante  festivitatem  aliquid  remanserit,  postea  adimpleat,  et 
quadraginta  dies  ante  Natale  Domini.  In  istis  tribus  quadragesimis,  quidquid  ori  suo 
praeparatur  in  cibo,  vel  in  potu,  vel  cujuscumque  generis  sit,  illud  aestimet  quanti 
pretii  sit,  vel  esse  possit ;  et  medietatem  illius  pretii  distribuat  in  eleemosynam 
pauperibus,  et  assidue  oret,  et  roget  Dominum,  ut  oratio  ejus,  et  eleemosynae 
ejus,  apud  Deum  acceptabiles  sint."  The  penitence  for  incest  is  a  little  more  restricted; 
Ibid.,  II.,  83,  Capitula  et  Fragmenta  Theodori:  "Ut  septem  annos  agant  poenitentiam, 
tres  primos  annos  tres  dies  in  hebdomada,  id  est,  feria  secunda,  et  quarta,  et  sexta ; 
quadraginta  dies  ante  Pascha  j  viginti  ante  missam  Sancti  lohannis,  viginti  ante  Natale 
Domini :  quatuor  vero  reliquos  annos,  feria  quarta  et  sexta,  et  quatuordecim  noctes 
ante  missam  Sancti  Johannis,  et  alias  ante  Natale  Domini." 

^Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  12,  Liber  Poenitentialis,  xvii.  :  "De  Observatione  Con- 
jugatoram,  §  i.  Qui  in  matrimonio  sunt,  abstineant  se  in  iii.  Quadragesimas,  et  in 
Dominica  nocte,  et  in  Sabbato,  et  feria  illi.  et  VI.  quae  legitimae  sunt,  et  iii.  noctes 
abstineant  se  antequam  communicent,  et  I.  postquam  communicent,  et  in  Pascha  usque  ad 
octabas.  ...  §  3.  Qui  autem  in  Quadragesima  ante  Pascha  cognoscit  mulierem  suam, 
et  non  vult  abstinere,  I.  annum  poeniteat,  vel  suum  pretium  reddat  ad  ecclesias,  vel 
pauperibus  dividat,  vel  XXVI,  solidos  reddat.  Si  per  ebrietatem  vel  aliqua  oausa  accident, 
sine  consuetudine,  XL.  dies  poeniteat.  §  4.  Qui  vero  in  Quadragesima  post  Pentecosten, 
aut  ante  Natale  Domini,  non  vult  a  sua  conjuge  abstinere,  XL.  dies  poeniteat."  Ibid.,  II,, 
81,  Ex  Fragmentis  Theodori:  "  De  temporibus  quibus  se  continere  debent  conjugati  ab 
uxoribus.  Uxoratus  contineat  se  quadraginta  dies  ante  Pascha  et  Pentecosten,  seu  ante 
Natale  Domini,  et  omnem  Dominicam  noctem,  et  quartam  et  sextam  feriam."  "Uxoratus 
contineat  se  quadraginta  dies  ante  natale  Domini  vel  Pascha  et  omni  dominica"  (Haddan 
and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  III.,  329,  Beda's 
Penitential,  731-34).  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  149,  Ecgberti  Confessionale,  xxi. :  "Vir 
cum  uxore  ne  coeat  XL.  dies  ante  Pascha,  nee  vii.  dies  ante  Pentecosten,  nee  XL.  dies  ante 
Natalem  Domini.  Wer  ne  haeme  mid  his  wife  XL.  nihta  aer  Eastron.  ne  Vll.  nihtum  ser 
Pentecosten.  ne  XL.  nihtum  aer  middan-wintra."  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  103,  Ecgberti, 
Arch.  Ebor.,  Excerptiones  xxxviii.,  Sinodus  Agatensis  :  "  Seculares  qui  in  Natale  Domini,  et 
Pascha,  et  Pentecosten,  non  communicaverint,  catholici  esse  non  credantur,"     Christmas 


134  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Mn  the  first  half  of  the  sixth  century  Christmas  received  a  new  signifi- 
cance for  the  Church  by  the  foundation  of  a  new  era  through  Dionysius 
Exiguus.  It  began  on  the  first  day  of  January  in  the  753rd  year  of  the 
building  of  Rome,  in  which  Christ  was  supposed  to  be  born,  although  it  is 
now  generally  admitted  that  that  date  is  wrong  either  by  three  or  by  five 
years.  That  new  era  was  introduced  into  Italy  in  the  sixth  century,  and 
into  France  and  England  in  the  seventh,  the  first  instance  occurring  in 
England  belonging  to  the  year  680.^  The  Venerable  Beda  uses  throughout 
this  year — the  year  **  of  Grace,"  "  of  the  Incarnation,"  "  of  our  Lord,"  "  of  the 
Nativity,"  as  it  is  styled  in  later  centuries — although  it  was  so  late  as  816, 
that,  by  the  Council  of  Chelsea,  it  was  decreed  that  all  bishops  should  date 
their  acts  from  the  year  of  the  incarnation  of  our  Saviour,^  Although  the 
Church  had,  from  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  apparently  thought  of 
rivalling  the  Calends  of  January  by  its  newly-fixed  birthday  of  Christ  on 

itself,  or  even  the  whole  time  from  December  25  to  January  6,  was  a  festive  and  gay  time, 
at  which,  even  for  sinners,  fasting  was  suspended.  Ecgbert's  Confessional  and  Penitential 
ordains  this  expressly  (Thorpe's  Aiuient  Laws,  II.,  135:  "Secundo  anno  licebit  homini 
[poenitentiam  agenti]  levare  poenitentiam  suam  a  Nativitate  Domini  ad  Epiphaniam,  et  a 
Paschate  ad  Pentecosten ;  On  tham  odhrum  geare  man  mot  lihtan  his  dsedbdte  fram  Drihtnes 
gebyrd-tide  odh  twelftan  dseg.  and  fram  Eastron  odh  Pentecosten  ").  Haddan  and  Stubbs, 
Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1871,  Vol.  III.,  p.  429,  Egbert's  Penitential, 
A.D.  732-766,  xiii.,  II  :  "De  natale  Domini  usque  in  Epiphaniam  et  illos  praedictos  dies, 
qui  supra  scripti  sunt,  in  penitenia  non  computantur."  Even  so  late  as  about  A.D.  looo, 
in  the  Canons  of  Aelfric,  the  time  from  Christ's  Nativity  till  a  week  after  Christ's  Epiphany 
is  excepted  from  Friday  fasting,  just  as  the  time  between  Easter  and  Pentecost  (Thorpe, 
Ancient  Laws,  II.,  362:  "And  faeste  aelc  man  twelf  monadh  selcne  Frige-daeg.  buton  fram 
Eastron  odh  Pentecosten.  and  eft  fram  middan-wintra  odh  seofon  niht  ofer  twelftan  daeg  "). 

^"Regnante  in  perpetuum  ac  gubernante  Domino  nostro  Salvatore  secula  universa, 
Anno  recapitulationis  Dionisi,  id  est  ab  Incarnatione  Christi  sexcentesimo  octuagesimo. 
Indictione  sexta  revoluta,  etc.  Quapropter  ego  Oshere  Rex,  etc.  "(Sir  Harris  Nicolas,  The 
Chronology  of  History,  London,  1838,  p.  3,  obs. ).  Sir  Harris  gives  some  more  instances 
from  the  eighth  century,  from  the  charter  of  Ethelbert,  King  of  the  West  Saxons  :  "  Scripta 
est  hoc  charta  anno  Dominicae  Incarnationis,  Dccxc";  from  a  charter  of  Offa,  King  of 
Mercia:  "Actum  anno  Dominicae  Incarnationis,  DCCLXXXVlli.";  from  a  charter  of  Ethelbert, 
the  second  King  of  Kent ;  "Actum  [anno]  Dominicae  Incarnationis,  DCCLXXXi.";  and  from 
the  charter  of  Egbert,  King  of  Kent:  "Actum  anno  Dominicae  Incarnationis,  dccclxv." 
{Textus  Koffensis,  pp.  134,  132,  131,  127).  As  to  the  introduction  of  the  Dionysian 
computation,  see  Notes  and  Queries,  Eighth  Series,  xii.,  421  ;  Ninth  Series,  i.,  10,  etc. 

^  Sir  Harris  Nicolas,   The  Chronology  of  History,  p.  4. 


THE  NATIVITY  OF  CHRIST 


135 


December  25,  the  struggle  was  by  no  means  fought  through  energetically  or 
even  consistently.  The  popular  customs  connected  with  the  Calends  of 
January  in  Italy,  Gaul,  and  the  West  of  Germany  gave  the  Church  ample 
grounds  of  objection  to  the  whole  institution  of  that  Pagan  beginning  of  the 
year.  The  Council  of  Tours  (569),!  Bishop  Caesarius  of  Aries  (  +  542),'^ 
and  Bonifacius  (  +  755)^  fought  against  it.*  But  in  the  seventh  century 
the  Church  made  the  very  same  day  a  church  festival — a  commemoration 
day  of  the  circumcisio  domini.  rAs  the  economic  year  began  at  Martinmas  the 
civic  year  commenced  on  January  i  all  through  the  Middle  Ages,^  although 
the  Church,  in  its  documents  and  accounts,  letters  and  publications,  pur- 
posely ignored  that  style,  and,  having  in  its  hand  almost  all  the  secular 
offices  of  princes,  excluded  it  from  documents  relative  to  them  likewise. 
The  Papal  Office  used  the  beginning  of  the  year  at  Christmas  up  till  the 
middle  of  the  tenth  century,  then  taking  March  -25  instead.  Under 
Bonifacius  VIII.  (1294-1303)  December  25  was  introduced  again,  and 
maintained  through  the  whole  of  the  fourteenth  century.  In  the  fifteenth 
a  new  change  set  in,  March  25  competing  with  January  i.^ 

The  earliest  documentary  evidence  of  the  beginning  of  the  year  at  Christ- 
mas has  been  stated  to  be  of  a.d.  1027.'^    But  even  centuries  later  the  Roman 

^Mansi,   Coll.   Cotu.,  IX.,  c.  803. 

"^  Opera  Augustini,  ed.  Benedict.,  V.,  app.  233. 

'^  Epistula,  xlii,  ]aSk,  Bibl.,  III.,  iii. 

^Grotefend,  Zeitrechmmg  des  deutschen  Mittelalters^   1891,  I.,  22. 

^Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  22;  Bemold,  in  his  Chronicon  [Momuiienta  Gerinaniae, 
ScriptoreSf  V.,  395),  says  :  "Civilis  'sive  vulgaris  et  lunaris  annus  in  calendis  lanuarii  .  .  . 
innovatur";  Burchard  of  Worms  (  +  1025),  in  his  Decretalia:  "  Fecisti  quod  quidam 
faciunt  in  calendis  lanuarii  id  est  in  octava  natalis  domini,  qui  ea  sancta  nocte  filant, 
nent,  consuunt  et  omne  opus  quodcumque  incipere  possunt,  diabolo  instigante  propter 
novum  annum  incipiunt " ;  and  an  addition  to  a  Canon  of  Pope  Zacharias  of  743  about 
the  same  subject  runs:  "Vel  aliquid  plus  novi  facere  propter  novum  annum." 

^Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I,,  205.  Germany  is  the  country  which  laid  most  stress  on 
Christmas  as  the  beginning  of  the  year,  and  it  is  quite  in  keeping  with  that  fact  that  even 
now  in  Germany  a  great  number  of  customs  are  connected  with  Christmas,  which  in  France 
and  Great  Britain  belong  to  New  Year. 

"^  Momitnenta  Germaniae,  Scriptores,  XL,  265,  in  the  writing  of  Wipo,  the  biographer 
of  King  Conrad  II.  (  +  1039):  "Inchoante  anno  Nativitatis  Christi,  1027,  Rex  Chuon- 
radus  iu  Iporegia  civitate  natalem  Domini  celebravit."  Brinkmeier,  Praktisches  Handbuch 
der  historischen  Chronologie,  p.   89. 


136  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Church  used  that  Roman  beginning  of  the  year  for  secular  business.^  If  the 
Church  was  not  successful  in  achieving  its  purpose,  it  was  because  its 
endeavours  were  soon  divided.  The  25th  December  of  the  year  o  having 
been  made  the  beginning  of  a  new  era,  it  was  by  no  means  strange  that 
that  date  also  should  begin  the  several  years.  But  soon  the  consideration 
came  in  that  the  incarnation  of  Christ  had  really  begun  with  His  con- 
ception, which  was  dated  on  March  25th  of  the  year  o,  and  that  style 
won  considerable  ground  under  the  name  of  the  Annunciation  style,^  so  that 
within  the  Church  two  styles  rivalled  each  other:  the  Annunciation  style  and 
the  Nativity  style,  for  both  of  which  the  name  of  Incarnation  style  can  be 
proved  to  have  been  used.^  The  confusion  thus  arising  was  detrimental 
to  Church  purposes,  and  at  last  fatal  to  both  styles,  which  in  the  course 
of  the  sixteenth  century  were  completely  beaten  by  January  i.^  Never- 
theless through  the  whole  Middle  Ages,  for  almost  all  matters  in  any  way 
connected  with  the  Church,  December  25  was — however  numerous  may 
be  the  exceptions — the  beginning  of  the  year  in  Great  Britain  as 
well  as  on  the  Continent.  In  the  British  Isles  it  was  not  before  the 
twelfth  century  that  March  25  was  taken  as  the  commencement  of  the 
ecclesiastical  year,  which  pra9tice  was  not  followed  by  civilians  earlier 
than  the  fourteenth  century. ^  1  Perhaps  even  Bishop  Liberius,  who  created 
the  festival  of  the  Nativity  of  Christ,  had  not  thought  of  replacing  alto- 
gether by  it  the  Calends  of  January.  But  when,  two  hundred  years  later, 
Dionysius  Exiguus  founded  a  new  era  on  the  year  of  Christ's  birth,  and 
the  festival  of  the  annual  recurrence  of  the  date  of  that  fact  grew  a  more 
and  more  important  ecclesiastical  institution,  it  was  only  the  logical  con- 


^  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  22,  Minutes  of  the  Synod  of  Gnesen  of  12^"]:  "Annum  autem 
a  tempore  circumcisionis  domini,  prout  tenet  ecclesia,  intelligimus  computandum";  Gervasius 
of  Canterbury  (  +  1208) :  "Annus  Solaris  secundum  Romanorum  traditionem  et  ecclesiae  dei 
consuetudinem  a  calendis  lanuarii  sumit  initium." 

"Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  7.  ^Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  7. 

^For  the  details,  see  in  Grotefend's  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  23. 

"Sir  Harris  Nicolas,  The  Chronology  of  History,  London,  1838,  p.  41,  from  which 
day  the  opening  of  the  year  was  transferred  to  January  i  as  late  as  1753.  It  had  been 
so  transferred  in  Scotland  in  1600  {Ibid.,  p.  43). 


THE  NATIVITY   OF  CHRIST 


137 


sequence  that  the  year  should  come  to  be  reckoned  to  begin  with  December 
25  instead  of  January  i,  a  fact  by  which  Christ's  Nativity  again  rose  in 
importance,  so  that,  for  the  clergyman  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries, 
it  became  the  most  prominent  day  of  the  whole  year,  and  soon  it  could  no 
longer  be  imagined  that  there  had  ever  been  a  time  when  it  was  equally 
unknown  to  the  Roman  calendar,  to  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  Germanic 
popular  traditiopC 


CHAPTER    XI. 

BEDA,   DE  MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM.  ^ 

A  CENTURY  after  Roman  Christianity  had  come  to  Britain,  the  largest  part 
of  it  was  christianized ;  and  in  one  of  its  monasteries  there  lived  and 
studied  a  youth  of  not  yet  twenty,  the  greatest  genius  of  the  early  Anglic 
Church,  Beda,  whose  life,  probably,  extended  from  a.d.  673  to  735, 
and  to  whom  we  owe  some  most  important  statements  about  the  ancient 
Germanic  calendar  and  ancient  Germanic  religion,  to  the  extinction  of  which 
his  life  was  devoted.  Although  he  lived  all  his  life  in  a  Northern  English 
monastery,  he  was  in  almost  as  close  contact  with  Greco-Roman  learning 
as  any  Goth  had  ever  been,  and  was  as  good  a  Christian  believer  as  any 
Roman  could  have  been  who  spent  his  whole  life  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  holy  See.  Put  into  a  monastery  at  the  age  of  seven,  and 
brought  up  under  the  special  care  of  Abbot  Benedict,  who  was  famous 
for  his  learning  and  the  wide  circle  of  his  interests,  he  was  estranged  from 
the  popular  beh'ef  and  customs  of  his  home  early  enough  to  know  com- 
paratively little  about  them,  and  to  care  for  them  the  less,  the  more  he 
was  taught  to  regard  them  as  the  relics  of  a  creed  which  led  its  followers 
unmistakably  to  eternal  damnation. 

The  passage  bearing  on  our  question  is  chapter  xv.  in  his  work  De 
Temporum  Ratione,  a  book  consisting,  with  the  exception  of  that  one 
chapter,  solely  of  facts  gathered  from  various  Latin  and  Greek  treatises 
on  similar  subjects,  and  showing  an  amount  of  classical  and  astronomical 
learning  which  is  astounding.  The  chapter  is  headed  De  Mensibus  Anglo- 
rum,  and  runs  thus  : — 

"But  the  peoples  of  the  ancient  Angles  (for  it  does  not  seem  to  me 


BEDA,   DE  MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  139 

suitable  to  relate  the  yearly  custom  of  other  nations  and  to  be  silent  about 
that  of  my  own  nation)  counted  their  months  after  the  moon's  course; 
whence  the  latter,  according  to  the  habit  of  the  Hebrews  and  Greeks,  re- 
ceive their  name  from  the  moon,  the  moon  being  called  by  them  Mona, 
and  the  month  Monath.  And  their  first  month,  which  the  Latins  call 
January,  is  called  Giuii:  then  February,  Sol-monath -,  March,  Rhed-monath ; 
April,  Eostur-monath  \  May,  Thri-mylchi ;  June,  Lida-,  July,  in  the  same 
way,  Lida ;  August,  Vueod-monath ;  September,  Haleg-monath ;  October, 
Vinter-fylleth ;  November,  Blot-vionath;  December,  Giuli,  with  the  same 
name  by  which  January  is  called.  They  began  their  year  from  the  eighth 
day  before  the  Calends  of  January  [Dec.  25],  on  which  we  now  celebrate 
the  birthday  of  the  Lord.  And  they  then  called  that  night,  which  is  now 
sacrosanct  to  us,  by  a  native  word  Modranicht,  i.e.,  night  of  mothers,  as  I 
suppose,  because  of  the  ceremonies  which  they  performed  in  it,  keeping 
watch  all  night.  And  when  there  was  a  common  year,  they  gave  to  each 
of  the  single  seasons  three  months.  But  when  there  occurred  an  Embolism, 
i.e.,  a  year  of  thirteen  lunar  months,  they  affixed  the  supernumerary  month 
to  the  summer,  so  that  then  three  months  were  called  at  the  same  time  by 
the  name  of  Lida,  and  on  that  account  that  year  was  called  Thri-lidi,  having 
four  summer  months,  but  the  usual  three  months  in  each  of  the  other 
seasons.  Again,  they  divided,  in  the  main,  the  whole  year  into  two  seasons, 
namely,  into  that  of  winter  and  that  of  summer ;  those  six  months  in  which 
the  days  are  longer  than  the  nights  to  be  given  to  summer,  the  other 
six  to  winter.  Hence,  among  other  things,  they  called  the  month,  with 
which  the  winter  times  began,  Vuinter-fylleth,  this  name  being  composed  of 
winter  and  full  moon,  of  course,  because  from  the  full  moon  of  that  month 
winter  took  its  beginning.  Neither  is  it  out  of  the  way,  if  I  take  the  trouble 
to  interpret  what  is  the  meaning  of  the  names  of  the  other  months  of  the 
Angles.  The  months  Giuli  get  their  names  from  the  turning  round  of  the 
sun  towards  the  increasing  of  the  day,  because  one  of  them  precedes  and 
the  other  follows  it.  Sol-monath  can  be  called  the  month  of  cakes,  which 
in  it  they  offered  to  their  gods;  Rhed-monath  is  called  after  their  goddess 
Rheda,  to  whom  they  sacrificed  in  it;  Eostur-monath,  which  is  now  inter- 
preted as  the  month  of  Pasch,  was  once  called  from  their  goddess  named 


140 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


Eostre,  to  whom  in  it  they  celebrated  festivals.  After  it  we  now  name  the 
time  of  Pasch,  calling  the  joys  of  a  new  festivity  by  the  wonted  name  of 
an  ancient  observance.  Thri-milchi  was  thus  called,  because  the  domestic 
animals  were  in  it  milked  three  times  a  day.  For  such  was,  once  upon 
a  time,  the  fertility  of  Britain,  or  of  Germany  from  which  the  nation  of 
Angles  entered  Britain.  Lida  is  called  calm  or  navigable,  because  in 
each  of  the  two  months  there  is  a  genial  serenity  of  the  air  and  the  sea 
is  usually  navigated.  Veod-monath  is  month  of  tares,  because  these  abound 
very  much  at  that  time.  Haleg-monath  is  the  month  of  worship.  Vuinter- 
fylleth  may  be  called  by  a  newly-made  name  winter-full-moon.  Blot-tnonath 
is  the  month  of  immolation,  because  in  it  they  devoted  to  their  gods  their 
cattle  which  they  intended  to  kill.  Thanks  to  Thee,  good  Jesus,  who, 
turning  us  away  from  these  vanities,  hast  granted  unto  us  to  bring  Thee 
the  sacrifices  of  praise  I"^ 

1  Giles's  edition  of  The  Complete  Works  of  the  Venerable  Bede,  VI.,  Scientific  Tracts  and 
Appendix,  London,  1843,  but  with  the  addition  of  the  deviations  from  it  in  Grimm's  text, 
from  Jacob  Grimm's  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  Vol.  I.,  Sec.  Ed.,  Leipzig,  1853, 
pp.  56,  57,  who  says  expressly  that  he  used  several  texts  for  forming  his  own.  The 
deviations  or  additions  are  given  in  brackets.     The  italics  are  mine : — 

"  De  Mensibus  Anglorum.  Antiqui  autem  Anglorum  populi  (neque  enim  mihi  congruum 
videtur,  aliarum  gentium  annalem  observantiam  dicere,  et  meae  reticere)  juxta  cursum  lunse 
suos  menses  computavere  :  unde  et  a  luna  Hebrseorum  et  Grsecorum  more  nomen  accipiunt. 
Si  quidem  apud  eos  luna  Mona,  mensis  Monath  appellatur  [apellatur  Monath\  Primusque 
eorum  mensis,  quem  Latini  Januarium  vocant,  dicitur  Giuli.  Deinde  Februarius,  Sol- 
monath :  Martius,  Rhed-monath  [Hredmonath'] :  Aprilis,  Eostur-monath :  Maius,  Thri- 
mylchi  [Thrimilci]:  Junius,  Lida  i  Julius  similiter  Lida:  Augustus,  Vueod-monath 
[  Veodmonath"] :  September,  Haleg-monath  :  October,  Vuinter-fylleth  [  Vintirfyllith']  : 
November,  Blod-monath  {Blotmonath'\ :  December,  Giuli,  eodem  quo  Januarius  nomine 
vocatur.  Incipiebant  autem  annum  ab  octavo  Calendarum  Januariarum  die,  ubi  nunc 
natale  Dominicum  celebramus.  Et  ipsam  noctem  nunc  nobis  sacrosanctam,  tunc  gentili 
vocabulo  Modranicht  ^Modranehtl,  id  est,  matrum  noctem  appellabant :  [  ]  ob  causam 
ut  suspicamur  ceremoniarum,  quas  in  ea  pervigiles  agebant.  Et  quotiescunque  communis 
esset  annus,  ternos  menses  lunares  singulis  anni  temporibus  dabant.  Cum  vero  Embolismus, 
hoc  est,  XIII.  mensium  lunarium  annus  occurreret,  superfluum  mensem  sestati  apponebant, 
ita  ut  tunc  tres  menses  simul  Lida  nomine  vocarentur,  et  ob  id  annus  ille  [  ]  Thri-lidi 
\thrilidus\  cognominabatur,  habens  iv.  menses  sestatis,  ternes  ut  semper  temporum  cseterorum. 
Item  [Iterum]  principaliter  annum  totum  in  duo  tempora,  hyemis  videlicet,  et  sestatis  dis- 
partiebant :  sex  illos  menses  quibus  longiores  noctibus  dies  sunt  aestati  tribuendo,  sex  reliquos 
hyemi.     Unde  et  mensem,  quo  hyemalia  tempora  incipiebant,  Vuinter-fylleth  [  Vintirfyllithl 


BEDA,   DE   MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  141 

This  is  a  very  strange  record  indeed,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  take  up  the 
proper  attitude  towards  it.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  coming  from  so  dis- 
tinguished a  scholar  as  Beda,  it  deserves  most  careful  consideration  and 
examination.  One  thing,  however,  is  clear  at  first  sight.  When  Beda  speaks 
of  the  ancient  Angles,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  believed  them 
to  have  had  the  views  and  customs  he  ascribes  to  them.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  quite  plain  that  he  could  not  have  any  direct  information 
about  their  beliefs  and  rites,  but  simply  inferred  their  views  from  what  he 
knew  about  the  Angles  of  his  own  time,  either  from  direct  observation  or 
from  hearsay.  So  all  the  allowance  that  can  be  made  is  that  he  heard  the 
things  he  relates  in  his  early  childhood  from  people  who  were  considerably 
older  than  he  was,  whilst  some  things  he  may  have  seen  himself.  Another 
feature  of  his  report  is  remarkable :  he  divides  his  statement  into  two  parts. 
In  the  first  he  simply  gives  what  he  regards  as  plain  facts;  in  the  second 
he  gives  explanations  or  speculations  of  his  own,  which  certainly  have  their 
value  as  the  opinions  of  so  great  a  mind  as  Beda's,  but  cannot  in  any 
case  count  for  more.  He  opens  that  part  with  the  remark :  "  Neither  is 
it  out  of  the  way  if  I  take  the  trouble  to  interpret  what  is  the  meaning 
of  the  names  of  the  other  months  of  the  Angles." 


appellabant,  composito  nomine  ab  hyeme  et  plenilunio,  quia  videlicet  a  plenilunio  ejusdem 
mensis  hyems  sortiretur  initium.  Nee  ab  re  est,  si  et  csetera  mensium  eorum  quid  significent 
nomina  [eorum  nomina  quid  significent]  interpretari  curemus.  Menses  Giuli  a  conversione 
solis  in  auctum  diei,  quia  unus  eorum  prsecedit,  alius  subsequitur,  nomina  accipiunt.  Sol-  . 
monath  dici  potest  mensis  placentarum,  quas  in  eo  Diis  suis  offerebant :  Rhed-monath  ^Hred- 
monatK\  a  Dea  illorum  Kheda  [//reda],  cui  in  illo  sacrificabant,  nominatur :  Eostur-nionalh, 
qui  nunc  Paschalis  mensis  interpretatur,  quondam  a  Dea  illorum  quae  Eostre  vocabatur,  et 
cui  in  illo  festa  celebrabant,  nomen  habuit :  a  cujus  nomine  nunc  Paschale  tempus  cogno- 
minant,  consueto  antiquee  observationis  vocabulo  gaudia  novse  solemnitatis  vocantes.  Tri- 
milchi  \trimilc{\  dicebatur  quod  tribus  vicibus  in  eo  per  diem  pecora  mulgebantur.  Talis 
enim  erat  quondam  ubertas  Britannise,  vel  Germanise  de  qua  in  Britanniam  natio  intravit 
Anglorum.  Lida  dicitur  blandus,  sive  navigabilis  [navigabilis  eo  quod]  quod  in  utroque 
[utroque  illo  mense]  mense  et  blanda  sit  serenitas  aurarum,  et  navigari  soleant  sequora. 
Vueod-monath  [FeodmonalA]  mensis  zizaniorum  quod  ea  tempestate  maxime  abundent. 
Haleg-nionath  mensis  sacrorum.  Vuinter-fylleth  \VintirfyUith'\  potest  dici  composito  novo 
nomine  hyemeplenilunium  [hiemiplenium].  Blot-monath  mensis  immolationum,  quia  [quod] 
in  ea  pecora  quae  occisuri  erant,  Diis  suis  vovebant.  Gratias  [gratia]  tibi,  bone  Jesu,  qui 
nos  ab  his  vanis  avertens,  tibi  sacrificia  laudis  offerre  donasti." 


142 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


There  is  no  doubt  that  Beda's  record  contains  facts  of  great  antiquity. 
The  most  striking  thing  in  it  is  certainly  the  assertion  that  the  Angles, 
even  about  his  time,  had  a  common  name  for  December  and  January, 
and  one  for  June  and  July,  namely,  Giuli  and  Lida,  which  means  that 
they  had  still  to  some  extent  preserved  the  old  three-score-day  tides  of 
Oriental  extraction,  which  they  had  used  before  they  came  into  contact 
with  the  Roman  pre-Julian  calendar,  the  basis  of  which  was  the  moon  and 
months.  Giuli  we  know  to  have  been  in  use  two  hundred  years  earlier 
among  the  Goths,  i.e.,  an  Eastern  Germanic  tribe  living  as  far  distant  as 
Italy  from  the  Western  Germanic  Angles,  though,  according  to  the  Gothic 
calendar  of  the  Bobbio  ms.,  liuleis  then  meant  November  and  December, 
and  not  December  and  January.  This  latter  difficulty  we  have  solved 
already  by  showing  that  the  old  Germanic  three- score-day  tides  began  about 
the  middle  of  the  Roman  months,  so  that  liuleis  covered  approximately 
the  time  from  November  15  to  January  15,  and  was,  among  the  Goths, 
shifted  a  fortnight  backwards  so  as  to  correspond  to  Roman  November  and 
December,  and  among  the  Angles  a  fortnight  forwards,  so  as  to  cover 
December  and  January.  Lida,  the  name  for  the  middle  of  summer,  is  new 
to  us,  and  we  ought  to  be  grateful  to  Beda  for  preserving  it.  That  exactly 
four  months  are  between  Giuli  and  Lida  shows  that  no  confusion  has 
taken  place,  but  that  two  other  three-score-day  tides  have  to  stand  between 
them.  When  Beda,  however,  tells  us  that  in  a  leap  year,  as  in  the  pre- 
Julian  calendar,  a  whole  month  was  inserted,  and  that  the  leap  year 
therefore  was  called  Thrilidi  and  the  thirteenth  month  the  third  Lida,  this 
state  of  things  cannot  be  old,  but  must  be  the  consequence  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  pre-Julian  calendar.  For  Lida  was  not  at  all  the  name  of 
a  month  among  the  ancient  Angles,  but  of  a  three-score-day  tide,  so  that 
thirty  days  added  would  have  meant  only  half  a  Lida,  and  there  would 
have  been  one  Lida  and  a  half,  and  not  three  Lidas.  Besides,  the 
Angles  havings  no  months,  but  only  three-score-day  tides,  could  not  insert 
a  month  in  a  leap  year,  but,  had  they  inserted  anything  at  all,  would 
have  inserted  a  whole  three-score-day  tide  every  sixth  year,  just  as  the 
later  Scandinavians  objected  to  the  insertion  of  a  single  leap  day,  but 
waited  till  the  past  leap  days  amounted  to  a  week,  then  inserting  a  whole 


BEDA,   DE   MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  143 

week  at  a  time,  so  that  the  year   always  began  with  the  same  week-day, 
i.e.,  Thursday. 

However  much  we  owe  Beda  for  the  preservation  of  those  two  ancient 
names  of  three-score-day  tides,  Gtuli  and  Lida,  we  cannot  conceal  from 
ourselves  the  fact  that  the  very  names  of  those  two  tides  amount  to  a 
complete  proof  that  the  other  eight  month-names  which  Beda  mentions  are 
not  old.  So  we  have  a  right  to  express  our  regret  that  Beda  was  not,  by 
the  existence  of  two  names  for  three-score-day  tides,  put  upon  the  right 
track  towards  an  understanding  of  the  ancient  Germanic  year,  and  that  he 
did  not  take  all  possible  trouble  to  find  out  the  names  of  the  other  four 
three-score-day  tides,  which,  together  with  Gtuli  and  Lida,  formed  a  com- 
plete Germanic  year  of,  probably,  three  hundred  and  sixty  or  three  hundred 
and  sixty-six  days.  In  his  time  it  should  have  been  possible  to  ascertain 
something  about  them.  Perhaps  even  all  of  them  were  still  in  use  among 
the  country  population  of  the  north  of  England,  and  some  ingenuity  and 
perseverance  might  have  sufficed  to  gather  them. 

The  eight  month-names  which  Beda  mentions,  beside  Giuli  and  Lida, 
are  not  old.  It  is,  indeed,  not  too  difficult  to  see  that.  One  of  them 
is  called  Thrimilci,  a  name  which  shows  a  very  suspicious  parallelism  to 
Thrilidi.  However  important  a  fact  it  must  be  for  a  tribe  consisting  of 
herdsmen  and  hunters  that  the  cattle  can  be  milked  three  times  a  day, 
we  have  Beda's  own  word  for  it  that,  in  his  time,  it  was  not  a  fact  at  all, 
but  only  a  legend,  a  legend  of  a  golden  age  in  the  far-away  past,  when 
such  was  "the  fertility  of  Britain,  or  of  Germany  from  which  the  nation 
of  Angles  entered  Britain."  A  second  month  is  said  to  bear  the  ingenious 
name  of  Winter-fylleth,  or  winter  full  moon,  which  is  not  a  month-name  at 
all,  but  merely  the  name  of  a  date  from  which  the  beginning  of  winter 
was  supposed  to  be  reckoned.  Besides,  this  looks  rather  like  a  counter- 
part to  the  calculation  of  the  Christian  Easter-festival,  and  would  amount 
to  the  fact  that  the  winter,  the  beginning  of  which  was,  in  common 
Germanic  times,  at  the  same  time  the  beginning  of  the  year,  began  in  the 
middle  of  the  month !  The  remaining  six  month-names  are  compounds  of 
manoth,  and  thus  characterize  themselves  as  being  late  formations.  No 
scholar  now  would  ascribe  any  considerable  age  to  the  Germanic   month- 


144 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


names,  since  even  Professor  Weinhold,  who  has  overlooked  the  fact  that 
the  Germanics  received  the  institution  of  months  from  the  Romans,  pro- 
fesses that  there  were  no  month-names  in  common  Germanic  times. 
Besides,  they  can  only  be  taken  as  representative  of  a  purely  local 
denomination  of  months.  Neither  Rugern  (August  ?),  which  we  know 
from  an  even  older  source,^  nor  hlyd-monath^  or  hlyda  for  March ;  ^  sedr- 
monadh,  midsumor  for  June ;  mcedmonath  for  July ;  or  hearfestmonath  for 
September,  which  occur  in  almost  contemporaneous  literature,  are  amongst 
them.  Nay,  they  contain  scarcely  a  single  month-name  which  appears  a 
second  time  in  Anglo-Saxon.^  Of  the  six  month-names  composed  with 
manoth  Beda  apparently  knows  the  right  etymology  of  only  two,  these 
being  Bldtmanoth  (November),  the  month  of  immolation,  or,  as  he  says,  the 
month  in  which  the  Angles  "devoted  to  their  gods  their  cattle  which 
they  intended  to  kill,"  and  Haleg-mAnoth  (September),  holy-month,  or  month 
of  worship,  a  name  probably  resting  on  a  Christian  foundation.  As  regards 
the  etymology  of  the  other  four,  he  makes  vague  guesses.  That  August 
should  be  called  Veod-manoth,  i.e.,  "month  of  tares,  because  these  abound 
very  much  at  that  time,"  is  very  doubtful,  and  a  very  poor  explanation 
indeed.  How  Sol-manoth  (February)  should  come  to  mean  month  of  cakes 
nobody  can  say,  there  being  no  such  word  meaning  anything  like  cake  in 
any  Germanic  language.  When  he  has  exhausted  all  resources,  he  takes 
refuge  in  the  assumption  that  the  names  he  cannot  explain  are  names  of 
imaginary  goddesses.  Eostre  comes  from  a  root  auzro,  which  is  cognate 
to  Latin  aurora  and  Greek  -qm,  and  means  something  like  spring. 
Professor  Weinhold  says :  "  I  explain  ebsturmonad  simply  as  spring-month, 
notwithstanding  Beda's  dea  Eostre,  in  whom  I  do  not  believe,  so  long  as 
it  has  not  been  proved  that  the  principal  feast  of  the  Church  could  be 
called  after  a  heathen  goddess.  Doubts  I  also  entertain  as  regards  his 
dea  Hreda,  who  is  said  to  have   given  a  name  to  March.      That   Beda's 

^  King  Vihtraed's  Laws,  A.  D.  696.         ^  Martius  rMhe,  Hlyda  healic  Menologium,  37. 

^  Hlyda  for  March  comes  dangerously  near  to  Lida  for  June-July.  If  February  and 
March,  or  originally  January  15  to  March  15,  were  Lida,  the  insertion  of  a  leap  month 
would  almost  take  place  on  the  same  date  as  it  did  in  the  pre-Julian  calendar,  where  it 
was  inserted  into  February,  which,  of  course,  was  impracticable  in  the  highest  degree. 


BEDA,   DE   MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  145 

strength  did  not  lie  in  etymology  is  shown  by  his  explanation  of  solmonad 
as  the  month  of  offering  cakes,  and  his  remark  on  Giuli"  •,'^  and  at  another 
place  he  states,^  "  I,  at  least,  regard  Beda's  explanation  of  Hredmonad  and 
Ebstre-monad  as  bad  guesses,  and  do  not  believe  in  any  goddesses  Hreda 
and  Ebstre  (which  doubts  have,  as  I  observe,  been  uttered  before  by  Leo, 
Rectitudines,  p.  206)."  I  should  not  wonder,  if  in  Hreda  and  Eostre  names 
of  two  old  three-score-day  tides  were  preserved,  which  had  in  Beda's  time 
become  limited  to  the  time  of  a  month.  They  can  be  as  little  explained 
as  Giuli  or  Lida  {Hlyda). 

Whilst  Beda  knows  of  a  dual  division  of  the  Anglic  year,  which  was 
bound  to  be  familiar  to  him  on  the  ground  of  the  existence  of  the  two 
terms  winter  and  summer  together  covering  the  whole  course  of  a  year, 
he  knows  nothing  whatever  of  a  tri-partition  and  the  legal  institutions  resting 
on  it,  although  that  tri-partition  is  a  fact  warranted  as  well  as  any  from 
the  early  history  of  the  Germanic  tribes.  Instead,  he  gives  us  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  Roman  year  of  the  Julian  calendar,  which  is  quartered  by 
solstices  and  equinoxes,  a  statement  which  is  the  more  extraordinary,  as, 
from  what  he  said  before,  it  is  quite  plain  that  he  thought  the  Angles 
had  a  lunar  year  of  354  days,  into  which  now  and  then  (presumably  every 
third  year)  a  whole  intercalary  month  had  to  be  inserted,  just  as  under  the 
reign  of  the  Roman  pre-Julian  calendar.  His  words  practically  amount  to 
the  following  proposition  :  Whilst  the  Anglic  year,  according  to  his  own 
description,  was  a  lunar  year,  it  yet  began  at  the  winter  solstice.  This,  of 
course,  means  that  it  was  not  a  lunar  year,  which  is  quite  out  of  the 
question,  since  we  not  only  know  that  the  Germanics  began  their  year 
with  the  beginning  of  winter  and  not  at  the  winter  solstice,  but  that,  in 
addition,  the  common  Germanic  language  possessed  not  even  a  term  for 
solstice;  nay,  that,  when  the  Western  Germanics  had  got  the  term  and 
meaning  of  solstice  from  the  Romans,  they  never  used  it  for  the  winter 
solstice,  but  solely  for  June  24,  all  through  the  Middle  Ages.  Nor  is  this 
all.  According  to  Beda's  description,  the  Anglic  year  did  not  begin  at  the 
real  solstice  (which  a.d.  701  fell  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  December 

'^  Die  deutschen  Monatnamen,  Halle,   1869,  p.  4.  '^Ibid.,  p.  24. 

K 


146  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

18)/  but  on  December  25,  the  date  which  Julius  Caesar  had  erroneously 
fixed  for  the  solstice.  When  he  comes  to  speculations  confessedly  his  own, 
the  value  of  his  statements  becomes  still  more  doubtful.  He  says  that  the 
Angles  called  December  and  January  Giuli,  after  "the  turning  round  of 
the  sun  towards  the  increasing  of  the  day,  because  one  of  them  precedes 
and  the  other  follows."  This  can  only  mean  that  the  Anglic  Giuli  ex- 
tended from  about  November  25  to  January  24,  so  that  the  first  Giuli 
ended  at  December  25,  a  statement  contradictory  to  the  other  statement 
that  the  Anglic  months  were  identical  with  the  Roman  months.  Further,  we 
know  that  the  Gothic  liuleis  tide  extended  from  November  i  to  December 
31,  and  that  the  common  Germanic  liuleis  tide  probably  extended  from 
November  15  to  January  15,  and  that,  consequently,  December  25  was  by  no 
means  the  middle  of  it.  So  if  Beda  means  to  say,  that  Giuli  was  originally 
the  name  of  the  winter  solstice,  and  that  from  it  December  and  January 
received  their  names  (a  statement,  however,  which  he  himself  gives  merely  as 
his  own  supposition,  or  interpretation,  as  he  chooses  to  call  it,  and  by  no  means 
as  a  warranted  fact),  he  may  without  any  hesitation  be  said  to  be  wrong — the 
more  so,  as  he  goes  on  to  say  that  the  day  of  the  alleged  solstice  (to  which  he 
ascribes  in  one  sentence  the  name  Giuli)  was  called  modraniht,  i.e.,  night 
of  mothers,  so  that  we  may  conclude  from  this  that  it  was  not  called  Giuli. 

Such  a  mass  of  mutually  contradictory  facts  cannot  be  explained  by  being 
ascribed  to  Beda's  inaccurate  observation  and  expression,  though  he  may 
not  have  understood  absolutely  all  he  was  told,  and  not  have  expressed 
things  as  carefully  as  he  might  have  done  on  a  Christian  dogmatic  subject. 
That  the  names  he  gives,  or  at  least  names  similar  to  them,  were  used 
within  the  neighbourhood  of  Beda's  home  in  his  own  or  his  parents'  time 
nobody  will  dispute.  But  he  apparently  received  from  those  sources  merely 
facts,  and  no  theory  with  them.  The  theory  he  must  have  formed  out  of 
what  he  thought  the  bearing  of  the  facts.  And  he  was  bound  to  mis- 
understand the  bulk  of  his  facts,  because  he  mistook  them  for  ancient 
Anglic  customs,  whilst,  in  reality,  they  were  the  product  of  a  strange 
shifting   of   old   elements    under   the    influence   of   the    pre-Julian    Roman 

^  I  owe  all  calculations  about  the  real  dates  of  solstices  to  Prof.  Hermann  Jacobi  of  Bonn. 


BEDA,    DE  MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  147 

calendar,  followed  by  the  Julian  calendar,  and  by  the  attempts  of  the 
Church  to  make  the  supposed  night  of  the  winter  solstice,  which  had  been 
made  Christ's  birthday,  the  beginning  of  the  year  as  well.  So  in  Beda's 
time  there  were  four  distinct  layers,  one  above  the  other,  in  the  popular 
notions  about  the  course  of  the  year,  and  if  we  bear  this  in  mind  all  the 
seeming  difficulties  are  elucidated.  Whilst  the  observation  of  new  moons 
and  full  moons  among  the  Germanics  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  theory 
of  the  course  of  the  year,  Beda  thought  it  had.  Whilst  they  owed  to  the 
Romans  their  leap  month  and  the  conception  of  months  altogether,  he 
mistook  these  things  for  a  genuine  Anglic  growth.  Whilst  the  Germanic 
year  began  at  the  beginning  of  winter,  he  made  the  Angles  begin  their 
year  in  the  middle  of  it.  ^Vhilst  the  Germanics  knew  nothing  of  solstices 
and  equinoxes,  Beda  based  his  theory  of  the  Germanic  year  on  them,  and 
put  into  the  centre  of  all  his  theory  the  25th  day  of  December,  which  was 
bound  to  be  dear  to  him,  both  as  the  alleged  day  of  the  solstice  according 
to  the  Julian  calendar,  and  as  the  day  of  Christ's  birth,  venturing  even 
the  suggestion  that  originally  that  day  was  called  Giuli^  and  that  December 
and  January  had  got  their  common  name  from  it. 

That  in  this  suggestion  he  was  wrong,  appears  from  the  fact  that, 
except  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  version  of  Beda  himself,  there  is  no  case  known 
in  which  December  25  is  called  Yule  in  the  three  centuries  which  followed 
Beda's  life,  i.e.,  up  to  the  eleventh  century.  And  even  then  there  are  few 
cases  which  are  not  doubtful  for  one  reason  or  another.  Either  the  MSS.  are 
of  too  late  date,  or  the  original  is  not  preserved,  or  interpolations  are 
suspected.  This  state  of  things  is  the  more  strange,  as  December  25  is 
frequently  referred  to,  e.g.,  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle.  But  it  invariably  is 
called  by  the  calendar  term  midwinter,  midwinter's  mass,  or  to  Nativited, 
neither  the  Parker  MS.  nor  the  Laud  ms.  of  the  Saxoti  Chronicle  containing 
a  single  Yule.  Geohel,  gebhhel-dcBg,  geohol,  gebhhol,  gebl,  giiil,  iul  are  the 
forms  appearing  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  When  towards  the 
end  of  the  eleventh  century  Jol,^  with  the  popular  meaning  of  December  25, 


*  There  is  no  doubt  that  Old  Northern  j6l.  Original  Northern  Jul,  Gothic  Jiuleis  is  not 
identical,  and  has  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  A.S.  hveol.  Old  Northern  hvel,  English 


148  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

sets  in,  it  is  apparently  due  to  Scandinavian  influence,  where  that  word  had 
come  to  mean  Christmas  through  Hakon,  King  of  Norway,  who  reigned 
from  940  to  963,  and  had  shifted  to  December  25  the  date  of  an  old 
February  festival,  which  in  the  course  of  time  had  come  to  be  celebrated 
between   January  9  and  14,  with   the  view  of  celebrating   it  on  the  same 

wheel',  for  the  Anglo-Saxon  word  corresponding  to  Old  Northern  j6l  is  Geola,  gehhol, 
geohhol  (Kluge,  Englische  Studien^  IX.,  p.  311  ss.  )•  Deriving  with  Kluge  {Englische 
Studien,  IX.,  311)  and  Bugge  {Arkiv  for  Nordisk  Filologi,  IV.,  135),  jSl,  A.S.  gehhol, 
from  an  original  Germanic  *jehwela,  and  declaring  with  Bugge  the  latter  as  identical  with 
Latin  joculus,  Professor  Mogk  (Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie,  Strassburg, 
1891,  Vol.  I.,  p.  1 125)  finds  this  denomination  as  the  "gay  festival"  appropriate,  because 
masquerades,  especially  in  the  shape  of  animals,  are  the  custom  then.  But,  apart  from 
the  fact  that  I  regard  the  establishment  of  a  relation  between  joculus  and  *jeh%vela  as  a 
very  bold  etymological  attempt :  the  mummery  and  masquerade  at  the  beginning  of  January 
are  missing  just  where  that  time  is  called  Yule.  These  usages  were  a  Roman  Calends-of- 
January  custom,  and  were  on  Germanic  soil  limited  to  Gaul  and  to  the  extreme  west  of 
Germany,  where  the  Roman  influence  was  strongest.  Professor  Weinhold  adduces  the 
Cyprian  term  'loi^Xios,  which  is  assumed  to  have  covered  the  time  from  December  22  to 
January  23,  and  which  he,  as  Grimm's  follower,  boldly  derives  from  the  month  of  July, 
maintaining  that  the  name  of  the  month  of  the  summer  solstice  (which,  however,  is  June!) 
was  transferred  to  the  time  of  the  winter  solstice  !  He  assumes  that  the  Germanics  did 
the  same,  but  fails  to  perceive  that,  as  the  name  is  found  among  Goths,  Northern  Ger- 
manics, and  Anglo-Saxons,  we  should  in  this  case  have  to  assume  that  it  had  been 
received  at  a  time  when  Goths,  Scandinavians,  and  Anglo- Frisians  spoke  one  language. 
He  further  overlooks  the  fact  that,  in  the  Germanic  languages,  it  is  not  a  month-name 
at  all,  but  the  name  of  an  Oriental  three-score-day  tide,  so  that  the  alleged  analog)' 
with  the  Cyprian  name — which  is  by  no  means  proved  to  have  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  Roman  month  of  July — does  not  even  hold  good,  though  the  whole  argument  is  based 
upon  it  (Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,  Halle,  1869,  p.  4;  Deutsche  Jahrteilung, 
1862,  p.  15;  K.  Fr.  Hermann,  Uber  griechische  Monatskunde,  Gottingen,  1844,  p.  64; 
Grimm,  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  1848,  I.,  pp. '78  and  106,  107).  The  form  of 
the  Greek  name  varies  considerably,  as  was  shown  above.  In  some  cases  it  is  not  clear 
which  month  is  meant.  Perhaps,  we  have,  as  I  suggested  before,  to  do  there  with  a 
relic  of  the  same  Oriental  six-fold  division  of  the  year  as  among  the  Germanics,  and, 
consequently,  with  the  same  name  for  November  and  December.  Perhaps  that  institution, 
like  the  whole  sexagesimal  system  of  notation,  is  of  Babylonian  origin,  the  sixty  minutes 
of  the  hour  and  the  sixty  seconds  of  the  minute  being  perfect  parallels  to  the  sixty  days 
of  the  tide.  The  sari  and  sossi  of  ancient  Babylon,  which  lived  in  the  sixty  shekels  to 
the  minazxidi  the  sixty  ?ninas  to  the  talent,  and  elsewhere,  are  contained  in  them.  The  saros, 
or  sixty,  is  at  the  basis  of  all.  Compare  Notes  and  Queries,  Ninth  Series,  HI.,  p.  136;  and 
Max  Miiller,  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,  New  Ed.,  Vol.  I.,  London,  1894,  pp.202  ss.,Some 


BED  A,   DE   MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  149 

day  as  that  on  which  the  Christians  celebrated  the  birth  of  Christ.  In 
England  the  new  term  for  Christmas  became  popular  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, but  in  Scotland  not  before  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
so  that  it  is  only  in  the  fifteenth,  that  mentions  of  it  in  Scotland  become 
very  frequent. 

The  laws  of  King  Alfred,  composed  about  888,  ordained  that  whoever 
stole  on  Sunday,  or  at  Christmas,  or  at  Easter,  or  on  Holy  Thursday, 
or  on  Rogation  days,  or  during  Lent-fast,  should  be  fined  twice  as  much 
as  he  who  stole  at  other  times.  ^  Here  on  Gehhol  apparently  does  not 
mean  the  day  of  Nativity,  but  the  time  about  that  day  in  so  far  as  it  was 
proclaimed  holy  by  the  Church,  which  would  not  be  longer  than  twelve  nights. 
So  it  shows  a  decided  narrowing  of  the  old  term  which  once  covered  a 
three-score-day   tide,   and,    later,   apparently   a    single   month,    but   it    does 


Lessons  of  Antiquity.  Still  more  uncertain  is  the  connection  of  Giuli  with  the  name  of 
a  Greek  Song  or  exclamation,  to\i\o% : 

Aej/SaXiSas  Teuxot^c*  faXas  ^etSej/  loi\ov% 

(preparing  the  salted  flour  she  sang  the  pleasant  luloi).  Jamieson,  Etymological  Dictionary 
of  the  Scottish  Language,  under  "Yule"  says:  "Didymus  and  Athenaeus  assert  that  the 
hymn  was  in  honour  of  Ceres,"  and  the  same  thing  is  intimated  by  Theodoret  in  his  work, 
De  Materia  et  Miindo,  when  he  says  :  ' '  Let  us  not  sing  the  liulos  to  Ceres,  nor  the 
Dithyrambos  to  Bacchos." 

^Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws  and  Lnstitutes  of  England,  London,  1840,  Vol.  I.,  p.  64,  v. : 
" Sethe  staladh  6n  Sunnan  niht.  oththe  on  Gehhol .  oththe  on  Eastron .  oththe  on  thone  Halgan 
Dunres  dseg .  on  Gang-dagas .  thara  gehwelc  we  willadh  sie  twy-bote .  swa  on  Lencten-fsesten." 
Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  450  (Alfredi  Legum  Versio  Antiqua)  v.:  "Qui  furatur  die 
Dominica,  vel  in  sancto  Natali,  vel  in  Pascha,  vel  in  Sancto  die  lovis,  in  Ascensione  Domini, 
in  quolibet  eorum  volumus  dupliciter  emendandum  sit,  sicut  in  quadragesimali  jejunio." 
Christmas  was  to  be  held  for  twelve  festival  days  (freols),  whilst  Easter  was  held  for  four- 
teen, and  in  the  harvest,  a  whole  week  before  St.  Mary-mass  was  celebrated.  Thorpe's 
Ancient  Lmws,  Vol.  I.,  p.  92,  xliii. :  "Be  Maesse  Daga  Freolse :  Eallum  frioum  monnum 
thas  dagas  sien  forgifene  butan  theowum  mannum  ond  esne-wyrhtum  .  xii.  dagas  on  Gehhol . 
ond  thone  dseg  the  Crist  thone  deofol  oferswidhde . ond  Scs  Gregorius  gemynd-daeg  .ond.vn. 
dagas  to  Eastron  ond .  vii.  ofer  ond  an  dseg  ast  See  Petres  tide  and  See  Paules .  ond  on 
hserfeste  tha  fullan  wican  ser  Seta  Marian  maessan .  ond  set  Eallra  haligra  weordhunge  anne 
dseg  .  ond  .  iiii.  Wodnesdagas  on  .  nil.  Ymbren-wican  .  Dheowum  monnum  eallum  sien 
forgifen  tham  the  him  leofost  sie  to  sellanne .  seghwset  thses  the  him  senig  mon  for  Godes  noman 
geselle.     Oththe  hie  on  senegum  hiora  hwilsticcum  geearnian  msegen." 


150  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

not  yet  mean  December  25  alone,  a  sense  which  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
reached  before  the  eleventh  century.^ 

It  is  the  same  thing  with  the  first  documentary  evidence  of  Ibl.  In  it  the 
term  also  means  the  holy  tide  about  Natale  Domini.  It  occurs  in  Edward 
the  Confessor's  writ  of  privileges  to  the  Abbey  of  Ramsey,  co.  Huntingdon,  ^ 


^  Unfortunately  of  the  four  manuscripts  which  contain  Aelfred's  laws,  three  are  of  the 
tenth  century  and  one  is  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  MS.  British  Museum,  Nero  EI 
belonging  to  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  and  the  Textus  Roffensis  to  the  twelfth  century 
(Wijlker,  Grundriss  zur  Geschichte  der  angelsdchsischen  Literatur,  Leipzig,  1885,  p.  399). 
How  cautious  one  has  to  be  in  order  not  to  take  later  expressions  for  older  ones,  the 
following  example  may  show,  in  which  later  manuscripts  replace  middan-winti-a  by  geolum 
and  Ares  Dryhtnes  gebyrd-tide.  A  note  added  to  Theodore's  Book  of  Penitence  {Liber 
Poenitentialis  Theodori  Archiepiscopi  Cantuariensis  Ecclesiae),  ed.  in  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws 
and  Institutes  of  England,  London,  1840,  Vol.  II.,  p.  46,  cap.  xxxviii.,  §14:  "In  ilia 
die  ante  Natale  Domini  hora  nona  expleta  missa,  id  est  vigilia  Domini,  manducant  Romani ; 
Grseci  vero  dicta  vespere  missa  coenant,"  mentions  the  different  customs  of  the  Roman 
and  Greek  churches  as  regards  fasting  on  Christmas  eve,  without  giving  any  particulars 
about  what  is  to  be  done.  Whilst  the  Greeks  eat  not  before  six  p.m.,  the  Romans  take 
food  after  three  p.m.;  and  Ecbert's  Confessional  and  Penitential  (Cotifessionale  et  Poeni- 
tentiale  Ecberti,  Archiepiscopi  Eboracensis)  ed.  in  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws  and  Institutes 
of  England,  London,  1840,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  162,  163,  gives  details  about  the  fast  time  before 
Christmas:  "  Legitima  jejunia  tria  sunt  in  anno;  unum  pro  omni  populo,  ut  illud  XL. 
diebus  ante  Pascha,  cum  decimam  partem  annuam  solvimus  ;  et  illud  XL.  diebus  ante 
Natale  Domini,  cum  totus  populus  pro  se  orant,  et  orationes  legunt ;  et  illud  XL.  diebus 
post  Pentecosten  ;  Dhreo  sefsestenu  syndon  on  geare  .  an  ofer  eall  folc  .  swa  that  XL.  nihta 
foran  to  Eastron .  thonne  we  thone  teodhan  sceat  thses  geares  lysad  .  and  that  XL.  nihta  aer 
geolum .  thonne  gebiddedh  hine  eall  that  werod  fore  .  and  orationes  rasdadh .  and  that  XL. 
nihta  ofer  Pentecosten."  Instead  of  "geolum,"  which  is  the  reading  of  O,  Y  has 
"  middan-wintra,"  and  Bx  has  "ures  Dryhtnes  zebyrd-tide,"  while  X  and  Y  add  the 
following  :  ' '  On  tham  serran  dasge  set  geolum  [Y,  middan-wintra]  aet  n6ne  sidhdhan  msesse 
bydh  gesungen. heo  gereordiadh  Romane.  Grecas  to  sefenne.  thonne  aefen  bidh  gesungen  and 
msesse .  thonne  fSdh  hi  to  mete."  Of  these  O  is  a  small  folio  MS.  of  Corpus  Christi,  C.C. 
190  (L  xil);  Y  is  a  small  narrow  volume  of  the  eleventh  century,  Bodleiana,  Laud,  F 
17  ;  B  is  a  tenth  century  octavo  MS.,  Corpus  Christi,  265  (K  2) ;  X  is  a  MS.  of  about  1000 
A.D.  belonging  to  the  Bibliotheque  des  Dues  de  Bourgogne ;  O,  which  Thorpe,  contrary 
to  his  custom,  has  wisely  abstained  from  dating,  belongs  to  the  twelfth  century,  and  is 
said  to  have  been  given  to  Exeter  Cathedral  by  Bishop  Leofric. 

'''John  Earle,  A  Hand- Book  to  the  Land-charters  and  other  Saxonic  Documents,  Oxford, 
1888,  pp.  344,  345. 


BEDA,   DE  MENSIBUS   ANGLORUM  15, 

to   be   dated   between    1042   and    1066,    but   preserved   only   in   a   twelfth 
century  manuscript.^ 

^  Cottoniatia,  Otho.  B.,  XIV.,  f.  257  :  "inne  lol  and  inne  Easteme  and  inne  dha  hali 
wuca  set  Gangdagas.,"  "  in  natali  dominico,  in  pascha,  et  in  sancta  hebdomada  rogationum." 
In  the  Exchequer  Rolls  of  Scotland  for  the  years  1264  till  1359  {Rotuli  Scaccarii  Regum 
Scotorum,  ed.  by  J.  Stuart  and  G.  Burnett,  Vol.  I.,  1264-1359,  Edinburgh,  1878),  the 
word  "Yule"  never  occurs;  while  in  the  Accounts  of  the  Lord  High  Treasurer  of  Scot- 
land from  1473  to  1498  (Compota  Thesaurariorum  Regum  Scotorum,  ed.  by  Th.  Dickson, 
Vol.  I.,  1473-1498,  Edinburgh,  1877),  it  is  mentioned  many  times.  Even  very  much 
later,  Yule  by  no  means  referred  to  Christmas  day  exclusively,  but  to  the  whole  season. 
The  History  and  Chronicles  of  Scotland,  written  in  Latin  by  Hector  Boece,  and  translated 
by  John  Bellenden,  Edinburgh,  1821,  Vol.  II.,  p.  340,  Lib.  XIII.,  chap.  xiv.  (under 
King  Alexander  II.,  A.D.  1222) :  "  In  the  third  yeir  eftir,  the  Erie  of  Caithnes  come  to 
king  Alexander,  quhen  he  wes  sittand  with  his  modir,  on  the  Epiphany  day,  at  his  yuill, 
and  desirit  grace."  HoUinshead,  in  his  Scottish  Chronicle,  in  which  he  followed  Bellenden, 
even  says  (under  A.D.  1222):  "As  King  Alexander  with  his  mother  Eymingard  were 
sitting  at  their  banket,  on  the  12th  day  in  Christmas,  otherwise  called  Yule,"  etc. 
Instances  from  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  of  Yule  as  identical  with  Christmas, 
are : 

"Till  Auld  Meldrum  thai  yeid  thair  way, 

And  thar  with  thair  men  logyt  thai, 

Before  Yhule  ewyn  a  nycht  but  mar  : 

A  thowsand,  trow  I,  weile  thai  war." 

Barbour,  IX.,  204,  MS.  (+  A.D.   1375). 
"A-pon  a  Yhule-ewyn  alsua 

W)rttalis,  that  to  the  Kyng  suld  ga 

Of  Ingland,  that  at  Melros  lay, 

He  met  rycht  stowtly  in  the  way." 

Wyntown,  VIII.,  36,  39  (+  circa  a.d.  1430). 
The  spelling  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century  is  Yule,  Ywle,  Yole,  and  Yowle 
( Compota  Thesaurariorum  Regum  Scotorum,  Accounts  of  the  Lord  High  Treasurer  of  Scot- 
land, ed.  by  Thomas  Dickson,  Vol.  I.,  1473- 1498,  Edinburgh,  1877:  Yule,  p.  17; 
Ywle,  p.  99 ;  Yole,  p.  239 ;  Yowle,  p.  245),  and  the  term  was  used  as  identical  with 
Christmas.  P.  17,  "fra  Pasche  to  Yule,"  from  Easter  to  Christmas;  p.  99,  again  Ywle,  a 
short  time  before  Christmas;  p.  239  gives  quite  a  number  of  points  of  time,  from  "the 
VIII.  day  of  November"  and  "Sanct  Martinis  day"  to  "Sanct  Nicholas  day"  (on  which 
also  "tua Sanct  Nicholas  bischoppis" appear  who  receive  "xxxvi.  s."),  "Sanct  Androis  day," 
and  "Yole,"  the  festival  at  which  day  is  called  "the  Kingis  Yole."  We  find  there  the 
terms  used:  "upone  Yole  day";  "Sonday  eftir  Yole,"  and  (p.  240)  simply  "eftir  Yole." 
On  p.  240  also  occur  "vpone  Newger  daye"  and  "on  Vphaliday";  while  p.  241  has 
"on  Candilmess  day,"  "on  Sanct  Patrikis  day,"  "agane  Pasche,"  "before  Pasche," 
"on    Pasche   day"   (twice);   and   p.    242,    "vpone   Sanct   James   daye,"    "vpone   Sanct 


152 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


Beda's  report  contains  another  item  which  must  be  touched  upon.  He 
says,  the  ancient  Angles  "began  their  year  from  the  eighth  day  before 
the  Calends  of  January,  on  which  we  now  celebrate  the  birthday  of  the 
Lord.  And  they  then  called  that  night,  which  is  now  sacrosanct  to  us, 
by  a  native  word,  Modrantcht,  i.e.,  night  of  mothers,  as  I  suppose  because 
of  the  ceremonies  which  they  performed  in  it,  keeping  watch  all  night." 
However  critical  the  attitude  one  may  take  up  towards  Beda's  etymologies 
and  theories  about  the  course  of  the  year,  there  is  no  getting  over  the 
fact  of  the  word  modrantcht  being  applied  in  his  time  to  December  25, 
a  word  which  admits  of  one  translation  only,  that  translation  being : 
night  of  mothers.  This  word  has  been  the  centre  of  much  discussion, 
and  the  object  of  a  number  of  very  divergent  explanations.  Jacob  Grimm 
thought  of  the  mothers  of  Heimdallr,  of  whom  Scandinavian  poetry  tells 
us;  others  thought  of  the  mother  of  gods  worshipped  by  a  Germanic  tribe, 
according  to  Tacitus  ;i  others  of  a  Germanic  belief  in  a  newly-born  sun. 
But  all  these  suggestions  have  lately  been  driven  into  the  background  by 
another  theory  started  by  Professor  Eugen  Mogk  of  Leipzig.  He  supposed 
Beda's  word   to   refer  to  the  Matronae  of  Romano-Germanic   inscriptions. 


Michaelis  day,"  and  "the  vi.  day  of  Nouember."  As  a  family  name  Yule  (Yole)  appears 
in  the  Exchequer  Rolls  of  Scotland,  Vol.  IV.,  1406-1436,  pp.  411,  621,  675  and  elsewhere. 
In  1494  at  the  Royal  Court  of  Scotland  some  timber  was  bought  from  Jonete  Gule.  Item, 
for  III.**  burdis  fra  Jonete  Gule  III.  li.  XV.  s.  {Cotnpota  Thesaurariorum  Regum  Scotorum, 
Accounts  of  the  Lord  High  Treasurer  of  Scotland,  ed.  by  Thomas  Dickson,  Edinburgh, 
1877,  p.  252).  As  late  as  1636  datings  occur  like  "  decimo  tertio  die  mensis  Januarii 
nuncupate  lie  twentie  day  of  Yule"  {Charters  and  other  Documents  relating  to  the  City  of 
Glasgow,  A.D.  1175-1649,  Part  II.,  edited  by  Sir  James  D.  Marwick,  Glasgow,  1894, 
p.  386,  "Charter  by  King  Charles  I.").  The  cases  in  which  Yule  unmistakably  means 
December  25  to  the  exclusion  of  any  adjoining  days  are  very  rare  and  veiy  late.  A  case 
from  A.D.  1535  is,  e.g.,  the  following  taken  from  Extracts  from  the  Records  of  The  Burgh 
of  Edinburgh  (A.D.  1528-1557),  Edinburgh,  1871,  p.  71:  "It  is  statute  and  ordanit  [be] 
the  provest  baillies  and  counsale  that  all  nichtboures  within  this  towne,  merchandis  and 
craftismen,  as  thai  ar  of  power,  till  furnis  cortise  till  pas  and  convoy  the  provest  fra  the 
kirk  till  his  awin  hows  after  evin  sang  in  the  haly  dayes  of  Yule,  New  Yeir  day,  and 
Vphaly  day,  vnder  the  payne  of  xviii.  shillingis  to  be  tane  of  thame  that  wanttis  cortise, 
and  at  every  deykin  haif  power  till  poynd  his  craft  for  the  samyn." 

^"Matrem  deum  venerantur  Aestii;   insigne  superstitiorum  formas  aprorum  gestant" 
(Germania,  chap.  xlv.). 


BED  A,   DE  MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  153 

whom  he  identifies  with  Old  Scandinavian  disar,  and  to  a  cult  of  the  dead 
about  that  time  of  the  year.^  He,  besides,  takes  Beda's  name  modra-nicht 
as  a  collective  singular  denoting  a  number  of  nights,  a  whole  holy  tide, 
devoted  to  the  dead,  the  female  genii  of  protection,  the  souls  of  the 
deceased,  whilst  Beda  decidedly  speaks  of  a  single  night  only.  But  if  one 
goes  so  far,  one  may  go  further.  In  classical  literature  even  there  is  a 
mention  of  deities  called  the  Mothers.  Plutarch  tells  us^  that  the  town  of 
Engyon,  of  Sicily,  was  celebrated  for  the  appearance  of  goddesses  who 
were  called  the  Mothers.  Such  Mothers,  mostly  three  in  number,  appear 
rather  frequently  in  inscriptions  in  Germanic  countries  which  had  come 
into  close  contact  with  the  Romans,  while  they  are  lacking  entirely  in 
Scandinavia  and  Iceland.^     Professor  Mogk's  opinion  is  untenable,  because 


^In  his  Mythologie  in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  gervianischen  FAilologie,  Strassburg,  1891, 
I.,  p.   1 126. 

Tn  his  Marcellus,  chap.  xx. 

^Dr.  CoUingwood  Bruce,  in  his  Handbook  to  the  Roman  Wall:  a  Guide  to  Tourists 
traversing  the  Barrier  of  the  Lower  Isthmus,  3rd  edition,  London,  Longmans,  1885,  says 
p.  155  s.  :  "It  may  be  well  also  to  mention  that  the  worship  of  the  Deae  Matres — the 
good  mothers — whose  name  it  was  not  lucky  to  mention,  was  much  in  vogue  with  the 
Romans  of  a  later  age,  especially  with  the  Gothic  portion  of  the  Roman  community. 
Several  statues  of  them  have  been  found  here ;  two  of  these,  shown  in  the  woodcuts  on 
the  previous  page  {155),  are  now  preserved  in  the  Museum  of  the  Newcastle  Society  of 
Antiquaries.  These  figures  usually  occur  in  triplets."  On  p.  201  another  statue  of  one 
of  the  Deae  Matres  is  mentioned,  which  was  found  at  Birdoswald,  the  Amboglanna  of  the 
Romans,  the  twelfth  station  of  the  Roman  Wall  of  England.  It  is  represented  by  Dr. 
Bruce  in  a  woodcut  on  p.  202.  The  body  of  the  figure  was,  in  1885,  kept  in  a  farmhouse, 
while  the  head  was  presei^ved  in  the  Museum  of  Newcastle.  Other  examples  are  contained 
in  the  Corpus  Inscriptionutn  Britannicarum,  Vol.  VII.,  Additamenta  quarta,  p.  282, 
No.  844,  a  stone  of  Camulodunum  now  kept  in  the  Museum  there.  It  has  the  inscription : 
"  Matribus  Sulevis  Similis  Atti  f(ilius)  ci(vis)  Cant(ius)  v(otum)  ](ibens)  s(olvit)."  Another 
inscription  (927)  is  devoted  to  the  Domestic  Mothers:  "  Civliv  Crescesi  Matribus 
Domesticis  vs  m.  1."  (found  in  St.  Mary's  Convent,  Eburacum).  Nos.  980  and  992,  993, 
seem  to  belong  to  the  same  group,  and  perhaps  even  1017 :  "(Mat?)ribus  com- 
(munibus?)  {p)ro  salute  de(curiae?)  (A)ur(elii)  Severi,"  because  there  is  another  stone 
devoted,  "Matribus  Com(munibus) "  (1032);  1054,  "Matribus  .  .  .  ntius,"  1081 ;  apart 
of  an  altar  having  the  inscription,  "  Matribus  tr{a)mar(inis),"  1091,  which  shows  the 
syllables  "Ma,"  "SA"  may  be  attributed  to  Mars  as  well  as  to  the  Matres.  Perhaps 
the  most  important  inscription  is  1 186:    "  I(ovi)  O(ptimo)  M(aximo)  Tarami  Belatucabro 


'54 


YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 


it  rests  on  the  assumption  that  there  once  was  a  Germanic  dead  festival 
about  the  middle  of  winter.  But  it  was  shown  above  that  the  facts  which 
seem  to  support  such  an  opinion  do  not  in  reality  support  it.  For  at  their 
basis  is  the  Egyptio-Roman  "Table  of  Fortune,"  and  no  sacrifice  to  the  dead. 
He  who  dares  to  put  that  interpretation  upon  Beda's  words  may  assume 
that  in  it  these  deities  are  referred  to.  But  it  is  certain  that  he  has  not 
properly  read  Beda's  words. 

Beda  himself  says  that  he  does  not  know  why  the  Angles  called  that 
night  modranicht,  and  expressly  gives  his  explanation  as  a  supposition  of 
his  own,  introduced  by  the  words  "as  I  suppose"  {ut  suspicamur).  The 
allusion  he  makes  by  way  of  explanation  is  not  to  goddesses  called  The 
Mothers,  as  he  speaks  of  a  goddess  Hreda  or  a  goddess  Eostre  in  the 
same  chapter;  but  just  as  he  derives  the  name  Solmanoth  from  the  cake 
baked,  or  the  name  Blotmanoth  from  the  immolation  made,  so  he  ascribes  the 
name  modranicht  to  the  ceremonies  which  were  performed,  and  by  no  means 
to  the  object  of  veneration,  a  certain  deity.  Whilst  he  elsewhere  clearly 
states  the  tertium  comparatio?iis,  he  in  this  case  refrains  from  it,  simply 
remarking  that  the  name  modranicht  is  probably  due  to  certain  ceremonies 
of  which  he  knows,  but  does  not  care  to  inform  the  reader.  There  is 
only  one  explanation  tenable :  these  ceremonies  were  of  a  maternal  char- 
acter, being  either  exercised  by  human  mothers,  or  having  as  their  chief 
constituent  something  maternal  or  referring  to  the  natural  functions  of  mother- 
hood. Customs  of  that  kind  are  certainly  found  in  the  Roman  Matronalia 
and  in  the  Calends-of-January  customs  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 

The  Romans  celebrated,  on  the  first  of  March,  the  Calendae  Feminarum, 
the  so-called  Matronalia,  at  which  the  married  ladies  of  Rome  went  to 
the  Esquiline  Hill  to  the  temple  of  Lucina — celebrating  the  festival  of 
matrimony.^  If  that  festival  had  been  brought  to  Britain  by  Roman  legions, 
it  could,  when  the  beginning  of  the  year  was,  by  the  Julian  calendar,  shifted 


Mogvnto  .  .  .  Movno  .  .  .  Deabus  Matribus  Deae  Svriae  Fortunae  ceterisq(ue)  Britannorum 
Dis    Deabusq(ue)   C(um)   verius    Fortis(simis)    Trib(us)    Coh(ortibus)    I(ulius)    Ael(ianus), 
Britonnficus)  V(otum)  S(olvit)." 
^Ovid,  Fasti,  III.,  179  ss. 


BEDA,   DE   MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  155 

from  March  i  to  January  i,  have  been  removed  with  it  to  the  Calends  of 
January,  and,  when  the  Christian  birthday  of  Christ,  on  December  25, 
began  to  compete  with  the  Calends  of  January,  have  been  transferred  to 
that  day.  Something  similar,  indeed,  seems  to  have  taken  place  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine  in  Germany,  where  on  the  Calends  of  January,  men 
went  about  in  women's  dresses,  using  that  disguise  as  a  means  for  all 
kinds  of  sexual  transgressions,  or  women  went  about  in  hides  of  hinds, 
whilst  men  wore  hides  of  stags,  licentiousness  of  every  description  pre- 
vailing.^ But  I  do  not  think  that  Beda  thought  of  things  like  these. 
Had  he  done  so,  he  would  probably  have  used  stronger  language,  mentioning 
the  abominable  disgrace  of  heathendom.  And  there  certainly  is  something 
decidedly  Christian  in  the  report,  the  keeping  watch  all  night,  a  peculiarity 
of  the  early  Church  which  again  and  again  occurs  at  Christmas  eve  and 
at  Pasch  eve,  and  about  which  elaborate  rules  existed.  If  the  custom 
he  referred  to  was  Christian,  or  might  be  considered  as  Christian,  or  as 
happening  even  in  a  Christian  Anglic  community,  by  those  who  might 
read  his  record,  the  reserve  Beda  uses  in  this  case  would  be  explained 
only  too  well.  And  there  were  indeed  such  usages  in  the  early  Church, 
ceremonies  which  had  evolved  out  of  the  Roman  Calends  usage  of  preparing 
and  eating  cakes  with  certain  observances.  These  had  got  into  very  close 
connection  to  motherhood,  producing  a  kind  of  obscene  cult,  in  which  the 
motherhood  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  peculiarities  of  Christ's  birth  were 
not  only  made  the  object  of  veneration,  but  were  expressed  in  visible 
symbols  in  the  shape  of  cakes.  In  such  celebrations  human  mothers  no 
doubt  took  the  leading  part.  From  the  night  of  birth  to  the  night  of  mother- 
hood and  the  night  of  mothers  there  are  only  two  small  steps.  That  the 
night  of  the  birth  of  a  child  should  be  dedicated  to  all  mothers  or  to 
motherhood  is  only  natural.  But  over  and  above,  we  can  prove  the  exist- 
ence of  such  a  cult,  exactly  contemporaneous  with  Beda,  because  it  was 
forbidden   by  the  Council  of  Trullus,  a.d.   706.     The  development  of  a 


^  Homilia  De  Sacrilegiis,  ed.  by  Caspari,  Christiania,  1886:  "  Et  illud  quid  turpe  est! 
Viri  tunicis  mulierum  induentes  se  feminas  videri  volunt."  See  the  list  of  cases  quoted  in 
the  above  chapter  headed  the  "Calends  of  January." 


156  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

cult  of  the  Virgin  Mary  instead  of  that  of  her  divine  son,  is  clearly  traceable 
in  the  Councils  of  the  early  Church.  Seeking  for  ever-new  objects  of 
veneration  and  supplying  the  "eternal  feminine,"  which  was  found  lacking 
in  the  new  religion,  orientals  and  occidentals  gave  visible  expression  to  all 
kinds  of  wild  fancies  about  the  act  of  Christ's  birth,  so  that  the  Church 
had  again  and  again  to  declare  that  he  was  born  quite  unlike  human 
babies,^  and  above  all,  without  an  afterbirth,  so  that  it  was  quite  senseless  of 
people  to  bake,  divide,  and  eat  a  cake  in  honour  of  the  afterbirth  of  the  im- 
maculate Virgin.  Later,  even  the  confinement  of  the  Virgin  seems  to  have 
been  made  the  subject  of  imitation.^  Beda  was  bound  to  know  that  custom 
as  a  heathen  and  abominable  custom,  it  having  been  interdicted  and  having 
been  alluded  to  in  the  Decrees  of  Pope  Hormisdas  (514-523),  and  in  the 
canons  of  the  Lateran  Council  of  a.d.  649  under  Pope  Martin  L,  which 
had  been  brought  to  Great  Britain  by  John  the  Precentor  and  adopted  by  the 
Council  of  Hatfield,  a.d.  680.  During  Beda's  own  life-time  the  whole  matter 
had  been  thoroughly  treated  in  Canon  LXXIX.  of  the  Council  of  Trullus, 
A.D.  706.  But,  of  course,  he  could  know  customs  of  that  kind  only  from 
hearsay,  or  from  his  own  experience,  at  any  rate  only  as  being  contem- 
poraneous. That  in  a  thing  so  wicked,  which  to  his  pure  mind  was  so 
unsympathetic,  he  did  not  see  a  growth  upon  the  soil  of  the  Church,  but 


^  Ada  Conciliorum,  Parisiis,  17 14,  Vol.  III.,  col.  1690,  Concilium  Quinisextum  sive  in 
Trullo,  A.D.  706,  Canon  Ixxix. :  "Absque  ullis  secundis  ex  Virgine  partum  esse 
confitentes  »it  qui  sine  semine  constitutus  sit,  idque  toti  gregi  annuntiantes,  eos,  qui  propter 
ignorantiam  aliquid  faciunt  quod  non  decet,  correctioni  subiicimus.  Quare  quoniam 
aliqui  post  sanctae  Christi  Dei  nostri  nativitatis  diem  similam  coquere  ostenduntur,  et  earn 
sibi  invicem  impertiri,  honoris  scilicet  praetextu  secundinarum  impollutae  Virginis  matris 
..."  Ibid.,  Vol.  II.,  col.  1014,  Decrees  of  Pope  Hormisdas  (a.d.  514-523),  iii.;  Haddan 
and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents  relating  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
Oxford,  1871,  Vol.  III.,  p.    146,  De  Beata  Virgine. 

2  It  is  a  strange  chance  that  we  are  able  to  show  that  this  custom  of  representing  in 
some  way  the  confinement  of  the  Virgin  spread  also  over  Great  Britain,  taking  there  even 
a  more  characteristic  form.  As  late  as  1800  it  prevailed  in  Scotland  (Jamieson,  An 
Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  under  "Yule,"  VII.),  where  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  twenty- fifth  of  December  one  got  up  before  the  rest  of  the  family  and  prepared 
food  for  them,  which  had  to  be  eaten  in  bed.  This  frequently  consisted  of  cakes  baken 
with  eggs,  called  Care-cakes. 


BEDA,    DE   MENSIBUS  ANGLORUM  157 

a  relic  of  heathendom,  we  cannot  wonder.  And  he  was  not  wrong  therein. 
He  erred  only  in  so  far  as  he  did  not  ascribe  it  to  the  Roman  Calends  of 
January,  at  which  the  Strenae  were  in  vogue,  but  to  an  imaginary  cult 
exercised  by  the  Angles  in  the  very  night  on  which  the  Church  had  fixed 
Christ's  birthday. 


l6o  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

Although  in  Germany — here  and  there  at  least — similar  terms  are  found,^ 
e.g.^  to  myddtivynter^  on  the  whole,  quite  different  denominations  prevail. 
The  Germans  formed  for  a  number  of  Christian  holy  tides  compounds  with 
their  word  wuh,  holy.  As  they  had  for  popular  festivals  the  word  hogetidi 
(Old-Saxon)  or  hochgezit  (Middle-High-German),  i.e.,  high  tide,  so  they  had 
the  word  wihtidi  (Old-Saxon),  i.e.,  holy  tide.  With  a  derivation  from  wUh 
they  called  the  Ember-days  (Quatembers)  wichfasten,  or  later,  weichfasten, 
which  nobody  will  deny  to  be  a  purely  ecclesiastical  invention.  And  the 
same  word  they  used  to  create  a  term  for  the  ecclesiastical  bearing  of 
December  25.  To  denote  an  individual  day  they  used  the  word  naht, 
night,  thus  forming  Kristisnaht^  and  wichnaht,  or  for  the  plurality  of  four 
days  wthnahten.^ 

After  the  year  800,  when  the  Pope  on  that  date  crowned  Charlemagne 
Roman  Emperor,  Christ's  birthday  was  a  day  frequently  chosen  for  state 
ceremonies.  And  this  apparently  was  the  reason  why  William  the  Con- 
queror,  who  won  the  battle  of  Hastings  late  in  autumn   1066,  chose  it 


foran  to  middan  wintra."  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  220,  iv.  :  "^dhelstan  cyng 
cydh  that  ic  hsebbe  geahsod  that  ure  fridh  is  wyrse  gehealden  thonne  me  lyste.  oththe 
hit  set  Greatanlea  gecweden  waere.  end  mine  witan  secgadh  that  ic  hit  to  lange 
forboren  hsebbe.  Nu  haebbe  ic  gefunden  mid  thsem  witum  the  mid  me  wseron  set 
Exan-ceastre  to  middan-wintre,"  etc.  The  term  Chrystismess  lived  on  for  at  least  four 
centuries,  it  still  being  found  about  1460  in  "Blind  Harry's"  The  Wallace,  v.  561  : 
"  This  Chrystismess  Wallace  rama)myt  thar ; 
In  Laynrik  oft  till  sport  he  maid  repayr." 

^Kempen,  Town-Archive,  D.  i,  No.  i,  about  1442:  "  Hefft  in  myn  hant  ghetastet 
gheloefflyke  myn  gelt  to  gheven  in  den  ver  hylghen  daghen  to  myddewynter. " 

2  "An  der  Kristisnacht  d6  begunde  he  zu  gene"  {Myst.,  48,  i) ;  "an  der  heiligen 
Christisnacht,  JeroscMn "  Pf.  58  ^,  Miiller  und  Zarncke,  Mittelhochdeutsches  Wbrterbuch, 
I.,  301. 

^"Gegen  disen  winnahten  Tank^ser,"  ms.  H  2,  93";  "zu  nehest  bi  winachten," 
Pass.  K,  46,  47;  "swer  zu  winachten  singet  vor  den  hiisern,"  Saalf elder  Stadtrecht, 
Wackernagel,  Literaturgeschichte,  I.,  p.  259,  note  9;  "zu  weinachten,"  MUnchner 
Stadtrecht,  VH.,  94;  "nach  einen  winachten  tagen,"  Biterolf,  478;  "an  dem  zwelften 
tag  nach  wichen  nachten,"  Ziiricher  Jahrbuch,  69,  5  ;  "uf  den  hailgen  tag  zuo  Wtchen- 
nachten,"  Ibid^,  80,  33;  "zuo  Wichennachten  uf  den  ziestag,"  Ibid.,  92,  13;  "an  der 
kindli  tag  zuo  wichen  nachten,"  Ibid.,  94,  33. 


NATIVITY,   CHRISTES   M^SS,   AND   CHRISTMAS  i6i 

for  his  coronation  at  Westminster^  a  Christmas  Day  which  opened  a 
new  chapter  in  the  history  of  Britain.  He  apparently  introduced  a  court 
festival  on  December  25,  for  from  1085  the  Laud  ms.  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
begins  to  state  regularly  where  the  king  kept  that  festive  time.  In  1085, 
when  he  held  court  for  several  days  at  Gloucester,  he  knighted  his  son 
Henry.2  In  1165  the  Scottish  king,  William  the  Lion,  was  crowned  on  the 
same  day.^  The  coronation  ceremonies  and  courts  at  Christmas  were  other 
steps  towards  something  like  a  popularising  of  the  English  Church 
festival  among  the  wider  circles  of  the  people.  Florence  of  Worcester 
(  +  A.D.  1 108)  also  mentions  the  first  court  held  by  an  English  king,  at 
Nativity,  under  the  year  1065,  which  has  to  be  regarded  as  the  first  secular 
celebration  of  Christ's  birthday  in  Great  Britain.* 

^Florence  of  Worcester,  under  1066:  "Willielmus  .  .  .  ipsa  Nativitatis  die,  quae  illo 
anno  evenit,  ab  Aldredo  Eboracensium  archiepiscopo  in  Westmonasterio  consecratus  est 
honorifice. " 

^The  Saxon  Chronicle  tells,  under  the  year  1087,  of  William  the  Conqueror:  "Thrice 
he  wore  his  crown  every  year,  as  often  as  he  was  in  England ;  at  Easter  he  wore  it  at 
Winchester ;  at  Whitsuntide  at  Westminster ;  at  Midwinter  at  Gloucester ;  and  then  were 
with  him  all  the  rich  men  over  all  England,  archbishops  and  suffragan  bishops,  abbots  and 
earls,  thegns  and  knights"  (William  Stubbs,  Select  Charters  and  Other  Illustrations  of 
English  Constitutional  History,  Oxford,  1884,  p.  81). 

^  There  is  a  great  number  of  other  cases:  The  Historians  of  Scotland,  Vol.  I.,  Johannis 
de  Fordun,  Chronica  Gentis  Scotorum,  Edinburgh,  1871,  p.  259  (ad  annum  1165): 
"  Igitur  in  vigilia  natalis  Domini,  die  videlicet  XV.  post  regis  mortem,  idem  Willelmus, 
amicus  Dei,  leo  justiciae,  princeps  pads,  a  Ricardo  episcopo  Sancti  Andreae,  et  aliis 
episcopis  coadjuvantibus,  in  regem  benedicitur,  atque  regali  cathedra  sublimatur." 

*  He  has,  in  his  Chronicle,  the  following  dates  according  to  the  Saints'  Calendar 
(Monumenta  Historica  Britannica,  I.) : 

"  696  Dies  natalis  beatissimae  Caeciliae  virginis  (November  22). 

917  Ante  Nativitatem  S.  Johannis  Baptistae  (June  24). 

918  Post  Nativitatem  S.  Johannis  Baptistae  (June  24). 
1021  Ante  festivitatem  S.  Martini  (November  11). 
1029  Post  festivitatem  S.  Martini  (November  11). 
1043  Ante  festivitatem  S.  Andreae  (November  30). 

1052  In  nocte  festivitatis  S.  Thomae  (December  18). 

1053  In  festivitate  S.  Kenelmi  martiris  (July  17).  \^ 
1065  Post  festivitatem  Omnium  Sanctorum  (November  i). 

In  nativitate  Domini  (December  25). 
Die  sanctorum  Innocentium  (December  28). 
L 


l62  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

At  royal  courts  the  Natale  Domini  had  soon  become  a  great  day  for  royal 
pomp  and  splendour.  On  that  day,  in  consequence,  any  humiliation  was  felt 
twice  as  much  as  on  any  other.  That  was  apparently  the  reason  why  King 
Magnus  of  Norway,  the  son  of  Olav  and  grandson  of  Harald  Harfagr,  in 
1098  sent  to  King  Murecard  of  Ireland  his  shoes,  with  the  order  to  carry 
them  on  that  day  through  his  palace  in  the  presence  of  his  ambassadors, 
in  order  to  show  that  he  confessed  himself  to  be  a  subject  of  King  Magnus.^ 
From  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  Nativity  banqueting  must  have  become 
somewhat  commoner,  as  legal  regulations  begin  to  refer  to  it.^     In  Wales 

1065  Epiphaniae  Domini  vigilia  (January  5). 

Post  haec  rex  Eadwardus  paulatim  aegrotare  coepit.     In  Nativitate  vero 
Domini  curiam  suam,  ut  potuit,  Lundoniae  tenuit. 

1066  Willielmus  .  .  .  ipsa  Nativitatis  die,  quae  illo  anno  feria  secunda  evenit, 

ab    Aldredo    Eboracensium   archiepiscopo    in    Westmonasterio   conse- 
cratus  est  honorifice. " 

^  King  Murecard  carried  the  shoes,  at  the  same  time  declaring  that  he  would  rather 
eat  King  Magnus's  shoes  in  addition,  than  allow  him  to  conquer  a  single  province  of 
Ireland.  Chronica  Regum  Manniae  et  Insularum,  The  Chronicle  of  Man  and  the 
Stidreys,  edited  from  the  Manuscript  Codex  in  the  British  Museum,  and  with  historical 
notes  by  P.  A.  Munch,  Christiania,  i860,  p.  6,  under  Anno  MXCViii.  :  "  Murecardo 
regi  Yberniae  misit  calceamenta  sua,  praecipiens  ei  ut  ea  super  humeros  suos  in  die 
natalis  Domini  per  medium  domus  suae  portaret  in  conspectu  nunciorum  ejus,  quatinus 
intelligeret  se  subjectum  esse  Magno  regi.  Quod  audientes  Ybernenses,  aegre  ferebant, 
et  indignati  sunt  nimis.  Sed  rex  saniori  consilio  usus,  non  solum,  inquit,  calceamenta 
ejus  portare,  verum  etiam  manducare  mallem,  quam  Magnus  rex  unam  provinciam 
in  Ybernia  destrueret.  Itaque  complevit  praeceptum  et  nuncios  honoravit.  Multa 
quoque  munera  per  eos  Magno  regi  transmisit,  et  foedus  composuit.  Nuncii  vero  redeuntes 
ad  dominum  suum  narraverunt  ei  de  situ  Yberniae  et  amoenitate,  de  frugum  fertilitate  et 
aeris  salubritate.  Magnus  vero  haec  audiens,  nihil  cogitabat  quam  totam  Yberniam  sibi 
subjugare.  Itaque  praecepit  classem  congregare,  ipse  vero  cum  sexdecim  navibus  procedens, 
explorare  volens  terram,  cum  incaute  a  navibus  discessisset,  subito  ab  Ybernensibus 
circumvallatus,  interiit  cum  omnibus  fere  qui  secum  erant." 

^  De  Institutis  Lundoniae,  et  primum  quae  portae  observabantur  (under  King  Ethelred, 
991-1016),  in  Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  3(X) :  "  Et  homines  Imperatoris,  qui  veniebant 
in  navibus  suis,  bonarum  legum  digni  tenebantur,  sicut  et  nos.  Praeter  discarcatam  lanam, 
et  diss[ol]utum  unctum  et  tres  porcos  vivos  licebat  eis  emere  in  naves  suas ;  et  non  licebat 
eis  aliquod  forceapum  facere  burhmannis,  et  dare  telonium  suum ;  et  in  sancto  Natali 
Domini  duos  grisengos  pannos,  et  unum  brunum,  et  decem  libras  piperis,  et  cirotecas 
quinque  hominum,   et   duos  caballinos  tonellos   aceto  plenos,  et   totidem  in  Pascha ;  de 


NATIVITY,    CHRISTES   M.ESS,   AND   CHRISTMAS  163 

the  first  Nativity  feasting  occurs  between  1056  and  1064,^  in  Ireland  in 
1171.2 

On  German  ground  the  first  great  historical  Nativity  feasting  appears 
about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  in  the  far-away  North.  At  that 
festival  Archbishop ^  Adalbert  of  Bremen,  who  died  in   1072,  was  present, 

dosseris  cum  gallinis  I.  gallina  telon,  et  de  uno  dossero  cum  ovis  v.  ova  telonei,  si  veniant 
ad  mercatum.  Smeremangestre,  que  mangonant  in  caseo  et  butiro,  xiiii.  diebus  ante 
Natale  Domini,  unum  denarium,  et  septem  diebus  post  Natale,  unum  alium." 

^Haddan  and  Stubbs,  Cotincils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents,  Oxford,  1869,  Vol.  I., 
p.  294:  "  Et  firmata  missis  manibus  super  quatuor  euangelia,  et  in  manu  Heruualdi  Episcopi 
consolidata,  et  coram  omni  populo  suo,  in  die  Natiuitatis  Domini  apud  Ystumguy";  Ibid., 
I.,  295  (a.d.  1056-1087):  "Liber  Landav.  Familia  Catgucauni  Regis  Morcannuc,  filii 
Mourici,  in  die  Nativitatis  Domini,  visitavit  Landauiam  bono  affectu,  et  (ut  dicitur  de 
virga  Aaron  versa  in  draconem)  animus  illius  familiae  tardus  ad  sperandum  bonum,  velox  ad 
faciendum  malum ;  et  ditatus  prae  nimio  gaudio  tantae  festivitatis,  cepit  baccare  copia 
potationis,  sequestrata  discretione  sobrietatis ;  in  tantum  quod  imperfecti  viri,  amissa  vi 
scientiae  et  pietatis,  devastaverunt  unum  familiarem  et  nepotem  Hergualdi  Episcopi, 
Berthutis  nomine,  virum  iustum,  et  medicum  totius  patriae." 

^ Rerum  Anglicarum  Scriptores  post  Baedam  praecipui,  London,  1596,  Kogeri  Hcrvedeni 
Annalium,  pars  posterior,  p.  302,  under  "  Henricus  II."  in  1171  :  "Rex  Angliae 
perrexit  inde  usque  Diueline,  et  ibi  moram  fecit  a  festo  S.  Martini,  usque  ad  caput 
ieiunii:  ibique  fecit  sibi  construi  iuxta  ecclesiam  S.  Andreae  apostoli  extra  civitatem 
Diueliniae,  palatium  regium  miro  artificio,  de  virgis  leuigatis  ad  modum  patriae  illius 
constructum.  In  quo  ipse  cum  regibus  et  principibus  Hybemiae  festum  solemne  tenuit 
die  natalis  Domini."  The  same  is  told  by  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  who,  however,  adds 
some  details.  Anglica,  Normannica,  Hibernica,  Cambrica,  a  Veteribus  Scripta,  Francofurti, 
1603.  Giraldi  Cambrensis  Expugnatio  Hiberniae,  chap,  xxxii.,  p.  776,  under  A.D.  1171  : 
[Henricus  II.]  "  Imminente  vero  Dominici  Natalis  solemnitate,  Dubliniam  terrae  illius 
Principes  ad  Curiam  videndam  accessere  quam  plurimi.  Ubi  et  lautam  Anglicanae  mensae 
copiam  vetustissimam  quoque  vemarum  obsequium  plurimum  admirantes ;  carne  gruina, 
quam  hactenus  abhorruerant  regia  voluntate  passim  per  aulam,  vesci  ceperunt." 

^  Erpoldi  Lindenbrogii  Scriptores  Jierttm  Germanicarum  Septentrionalimn,  Vicinoruvique 
Populorum  Veteres  diver  si,  etc.,  ed.  Jo.  Albertus  Fabricius,  Hamburg!,  1706,  M.  Adami 
Bremensis  Historia  Ecclesiastica  (Adam  became  Canonicus  Bremensis  in  1077),  Lib.  IV., 
chap,  xxxix.,  p.  53:  "In  die  itaque  natalis  Domini,  cum  Magnus  Dux  praesens  adesset, 
magnaque  recumbentium  multitudo,  hilares  convivje  pro  sua  consuetudine  finitis  epulis 
plausum  cum  voce  levaverunt.  Quod  tamen  non  parum  displicuit  Archiepiscopo  [Adalberto 
+  1072].  Itaque  innuens  fratribus  nostris,  qui  simul  aderant,  praecepit  Cantori,  ut  imponeret 
Antiphonam,  Hymnum  cantate  nobis.  At  vero  laicis  denuo  perstrepentibus,  inchoari  fecit : 
Sustinuimus  pacem  et  noji  venit  Domine.  Tertio  vero  cum  adhuc  in  poculis  ulularent, 
iratus  valde,  levari  mensam  praecepit,  magna  voce  pronuncians :  Converte  Domine  captivi- 


1 64  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

while  the  banquet  was  also  attended  by  Duke  Magnus,  and  a  great  crowd 
of  others.  The  dinner  being  over,  the  duke  and  his  people  began  to  sing 
or  shout  songs  or  exclamations,  which  displeased  the  archbishop.  He 
therefore  ordered  the  clerical  members  of  the  feast  to  sing  some  clerical 
song,  which  they  did  without  being  able  to  defy  their  secular  opponents. 
In  high  dudgeon,  Adalbert  therefore  ordered  in  a  loud  voice  the  table 
to  be  lifted,  asking  God  to  free  him  from  such  captivity.  Then,  with 
his  followers,  he  retired  into  the  oratory,  weeping  bitterly. 

The  festive  time  about  December  25  and  January  6  evolves  before 
our  eyes,  and  receives  one  characteristic  after  another.  Work  on 
festival  days  is  suppressed  as  early  as  in  the  Laws  of  Edward  and 
Guthrum.  Through  it  a  freeman  forfeits  his  freedom,  or  pays  wite  or 
lah'Slit.  And  if  a  lord  oblige  his  theow  to  work  on  a  festival  day, 
he  has  to  pay  lah-slit  within  the  Danish  law,  and  wite  among  the 
English.*     Ordeal  and  oaths  are  forbidden  on  festival  days.^ 

Under  King  Ethelred  (991-1016),  the  older  inhibition  of  ordeals  and 
oaths  on  festival-days  was  repeated,  and  this  inhibition  extended  to  the 
regular  Ember-days,  and  from  Advent  till  the  octaves  of  Epiphany ;  and 
from  Septuagesima  till  fifteen  days  after  Easter j  and  at  those  holy  tides 
there  was  to  be  with  all  Christian  men  general  peace  and  concord,  even 
strife    being    appeased.^      If    any    one    owed    another    borh    or    bot    on 

tatem  nostram  ;  respondente  choro  ;  sicut  torrens  in  austro.  Ita  ille  nobis  pone  sequentibus, 
in  oratorium  reclusus,  flevit  amare.  Non  cessabo,  ait,  a  Jietu,  donee  Justus  judex  fortis  et 
patiens  liberet  Ecclesiam  meam:  vel  potius  suam  ;  quam  Past  ore  contempto  videt  miserabiliter 
a  lupis  discerpi.  Impletum  est  enim  desiderium  eorum,  qui  dixeinint :  Hcereditate  possideamus 
sanctuarium  Dei,  et  quiscere  faciamus  onines  dies  festos  Dei  a  terra,  et  disperdamus  eos  de 
gente,  et  non  inemoretur  nonien  Israel  ultra.  Exsurge:  quare  obdormis,  Doniine,  et  ne 
repellas  in  jinem.  Quia  superbia  eorum  qui  te  aderunt,  ascendit  semper.  Miserere  nostri, 
quoniam  multum  repleti  sumus  despectione.  Quoniam  quern  tu  percussisti,  persequuti  sunt, 
et  super  dolorem  vtdnerum  tneorum  addiderunt." 

^Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.   172,  7;  the  A.S.  term  vs,  freols-dcege. 

"^ Ibid.,  p.  172,  No.  ix.  :  "Ordel  ond  adhas  syndan  tocwedene  freols-dagum  ond  riht 
faesten-dagum." 

3 Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  p.  309,  xviii.  :  "And  ordal  and  adhar  sindon  tocweden 
fre&ls-dagum.  and  riht  Ymbren-dagum.  and  fram  Adventum  Domini  odh  octabas  Epiphanie. 
and  fram  Septuagesimam  odh  XV.  niht  ofer  Eastran."  xix.  "And  beo  tham  halgum  ttdan 
eal  swa  hit  riht  is,  eallum  cristenum  mannum  sib  and  s6m  gemsene.  and  oelc  sacu  getwoemed," 


NATIVITY,   CHRISTES   M/ESS,   AND  CHRISTMAS  165 

account  of  secular  matters,  he  was  to  fulfil  it  willingly  before  or  after, 
but  not  within  the  festive  tide.^  In  Germany  the  same  habits  can  be 
proved  to  have  existed  about  1400.2 

Edward  the  Confessor  ordained  again  that  strict  peace  was  to  be 
kept  from  Christ's  Nativity  till  a  week  after  Epiphany,  i.e.,  the  entire  holy 
tide,  which  in  previous  centuries,  as  has  been  shown  above  in  the 
chapter  on  the  Nativity  of  Christ,  had  been  exempt  from  Friday  fasting, 
and  later  had  been  called  Gehhol.^  With  little  alterations  these  pro- 
hibitions appeared  again  in  the  so-called  Laws  of  King  Cnut,  which  were 
manufactured  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.^    The  same  holds 


^Thor^Q^s  A  ruient  Laws,  p.  308,  xx. :  "And  gif  hwa  odhrum  scyle  borh  oththon  b6te 
set  woroldlican  thingan.  gelseste  hit  georne.  ser  oththon  seften."  The  same  regulations  are 
repeated  in  the  resolutions  passed  at  the  Council  of  Enam,  Ibid.,  I.,  p,  320,  xxii.-xxv. 

'^Rees,  Rhine-country,  Town- Archive,  Burgerbuch,  fol.  6'':  "Item  desselben  gelijck  sail 
et  oick  vry  wesen  in  den  twaelff  nachten  ende  in  onsen  jair  marckten  ende  kirmissen 
ende  als  men  onse  vrouwe  dreghet";  (vry  wesen,  i.e.,  there  shall  be  no  law  courts). 

^Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  443,  Leges  Edwardi  Confessoris  (1042-1066):  "Quibus 
temporibus  pax  servanda  est."  ii.  "Ab  adventu  Domini  usque  ad  octavas  Epiphaniae  pax 
Dei  et  sanctae  ecclesiae  per  omne  regnum.  Similiter  a  Septuagesima  usque  ad  octavas 
Paschae.  Item  ab  Ascensione  Domini  usque  ad  octavas  Pentecostes.  Item  omnibus 
diebus  nil,  temporum.  Item  omnibus  Sabatis  totius  anni,  ab  hora  nona,  et  totum  diem 
sequentem.  Item  vigilia  Sanctae  Mariae,  Sancti  Michaelis,  Sancti  lohannis  Baptistae, 
sanctorum  omnium  Apostolorum,  et  Sanctorum  illorum  quorum  festivitates  a  sacerdotibus 
in  ecclesia  diebus  Dominicis  annunciabuntur,  et  Omnium  Sanctorum  kalendis  Novembris, 
semper  ab  hora  nona  vigiliarum  et  totum  diem  sequentem.  Item  in  festivitatum 
celebrationibus  Sanctorum  quicumque  fuerint  in  parochiis  ubi  sunt  ecclesiae  eorum."  The 
king's  peace,  however,  was  different.  Ibid.,  I.  p.  447:  "Pax  regis  multiplex  est.  Alia 
data  manu  sua,  quam  Anglici  vocant  kinges  hand-sealde  gridh.  Alia  die  qua  primum 
coronatus  est;  ipsa  habet  vili.  dies.  In  Natali  Domini,  viil.  dies;  et  viii.  dies  Paschae, 
et  VIII.  dies  Pentecostes,"  etc. 

*  Thorpe's  ^««^7z/  Laws,  I.,  p.  368:  "  De  leiuniis."  xvi.  "And  that  man  aelc  beboden 
fsesten  healde.  si  hit  Ymbren-faesten.  st  hit  Lengcten-fsesten.  si  hit  elles  odher  fsesten. 
mid  ealre  geornfiilnesse.  and  to  Sanctam  Mariam  msessan  selcere.  and  to  selces 
apostoles  maessan  fseste  man.  butan  to  Philippi  and  lacobi  msessan  we  ne  be6dadh  nan 
faesten.  for  tham  Easterlican  fre61se.  and  selces  Frige-dseger  fsesten.  buton  hit  freols  sy. 
And  ne  thearf  man  na  fsesten  fram  Eastran  odh  Pentecosten.  buton  hwa  gescnfen  sig. 
oththe  he  elles  fsesten  wylle.  And  of  middan-wintre  odh  octabas  Epiphanie.  that  is 
seofen  niht  ofer  twelftan  msesse-dsege. "     This  last  sentence  forms  one  of  the  few  conclusive 


1 66  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

good  of  those  laws  which   hold  themselves  out  as  written  under  Henry  I. 
(1100-1135).! 

At  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  the  time  of  Christ's  Nativity  seems 
to  have  passed  from  a  mere  ecclesiastical  and  state  celebration  into  popularity 
so  far,  that  it  became  general  to  keep  it  by  feasting  and  banqueting. 
This  is  to  be  seen  from  the  change  of  the  attitude  of  the  Church  towards 
that  festive  tide.  So  far  it  had  proclaimed  it  to  be  a  joyous  time,  during 
which  all  fasting  was  suspended — not  only  regular  Friday  fasting,  but  also 
the  stricter  fasting  for  grave  offenders,  who  had  to  do  penance  for  a 
number  of  years.  But  by  that  time  Nativity  banqueting  seems  to  have 
become  too  gay,  so  that  now  the  Church  made  attempts  to  check  it. 
This  is  evident  from  the  so-called  Laws  of  King  Cnut,  (1016-1028),  which 
in    reality,    as     before    mentioned,    were    fabricated    in    England    under 


proofs  that,  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  term  midwinter  meant  December 
25.  Ibid.,  I.,  p.  370,  Laws  of  King  Cnut:  "De  Temporibus  lustitiae."  xvii.  "And  we 
forbe&dadh  ordal  and  adhar  freols-dagum.  and  ymbren-dagum.  and  lengcten  dagum.  and 
riht  fsesten  dagum.  and  fram  Adventum  Domini  [this  term  does  not  mean  the  Advent- 
tide,  but  December  25]  odh  se  eahtodha  dseg  agan  sig  ofer  twelftan  m:esse-d3ege.  and 
fram  Septuagesima  odh  xv.  nihton  ofer  Eastron.  And  sancte  Eadweardes  msesse-dseg 
witan  habbadh  gecoren  that  man  freSlsian  sceal  ofer  eall  Engla-land  on  xv.  kl.  April. 
And  Sancte  Dunstanes  msesse-dseg  on  xilii.  kl.  lunii.  And  beo  tham  halgum  tidum. 
eal  swa  hit  riht  is.  eallum  cristenum  mannum  sib  and  s8m  gemsene.  and  selc  sacu 
t6twaemed.  And  gyf  hwa  odhrum  sceole  borh  oththe  bfite.  set  woruldlicum  thingum. 
gelseste  hit  him  georne.  ser  oththe  sefter."  About  the  general  observance  of  festival 
days,  compare  Ibid.,  I.,  402,  xlv.,  xlvii.  and  xlviii.  of  the  Laws  of  King  Cnut  from 
the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century. 

^Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  I.,  562-63,  Ixii.  :  "De  Observatione  temporis  leges  faciendi. 
§  I.  Ab  Adventu  Domini  [i.e.,  December  25]  usque  ad  Epiphaniae  octabas,  et  a  Lxx. 
usque  ad  xv.  dies  post  Pascha,  et  festis  diebus,  et  quatuor  temporum,  et  diebus 
Quadragesimalibus,  et  aliis  legitimis  jejuniis,  et  in  diebus  Veneris,  et  vigiliis  sanctorum 
Apostolorum,  non  est  tempus  leges  faciendi,  idem  vel  jusjurandum  pro  fidelitate  domini, 
vel  concordiam,  vel  bellum,  vel  ferri,  vel  aquae,  vel  alias  legis  examinationes  tractari ; 
sed  sit  in  omnibus  vera  pax,  beata  caritas,  ad  honorem  Omnipotentis  Dei,  cujus 
sapientia  conditi  sumus,  nativitate  provecti,  a  morte  redempti,  consolatione  securi.  §  2. 
Et  qui  debitor  est,  ante  persolvat  vel  induciet,  donee  dies  isti  transeant,  gaudiis  et 
honestis  voluptatibus  instituti.  §  3.  Et  si  quis  malefactum  inter  manus  habens  alicubi 
retinetur,  ibi  purgetur  vel  sordidetur.  Si  solum  inculpatio  sit,  plegiis,  si  opus  est,  datis, 
ubi  justum  fuerit  terminanda,  revertatur." 


NATIVITY,   CHRISTES   M^SS,  AND  CHRISTMAS  167 

Henry  I.  about  a.d.  mo/  and  which  ordain  the  time  of  strict  peace, 
from  midwinter  to  the  octave  of  Epiphany,  to  be  also  a  time  of  strict 
fasting.2  This,  however,  was  so  little  carried  through,  that  in  the  thirteenth 
century  the  Church  itself  was  most  seriously  involved  in  gaieties,  which 
were  shifted  from  the  Calends  of  January  to  a  date  dangerously  near 
Christmas.^  In  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  century  stories,  Christmas  is 
presupposed  as  the  time  when  everybody  shows  himself  in  his  best  dress, 
and  whoever  does  not  follow  the  fashion  in  that  respect  is  ridiculed.* 
When  the  giving  of   presents   at   Christmas  had    become    more   general, 

^  Liebermann,  On  the  Instituta  Cnuti  Aliorumque  Regum  Anglorum,  pp.  83,  85 ; 
Thorpe's  Ancient  Laws,  II.,  521,  Leges  Regis  Cnuti:  "  Haec  sunt'  instituta  Cnuti,  regis 
Anglorum,  Danorum,  et  Norwegarum,  venerando  sapientum  ejus  consilio,  ad  laudem  Dei, 
et  suam  regalitatem,  et  commune  commodum  habita,  in  sancto  Natali  Domini,  apud 
Wintoniam,"  etc. 

'^Thorpe,  Ancient  Laws  atid  Instittttes  of  England,  London,  1840,  Vol.  I.,  p.  368, 
Ecclesiastical  Laws  of  King  Cnut,  No.  XVI :  "De  Jeiuniis:  And  that  man  selc  beboden  faesten 
healde  .  .  .  mid  ealre  geornfulnesse.  .  .  .  And  of  middan-wintre  odh  octabas  Epiphanie. 
that  is  seofen  niht  ofer  twelftan  maesse  dsege." 

^Compare  the  note  on  p.  100.  Ducange,  Glossariiim,  under  Kalendae,  Concilium 
Copriniacense,  a.d.  1260,  c.  ii. :  "  Rursus  cum  in  ballealione,  quae  in  festo  S.S.  Inno- 
centium  in  quibusdam  Ecclesiis  fieri  inolevit,  multae  lixae,  contentiones,  et  turbationes, 
tarn  in  divinis  Officiis,  quam  aliis  consueverunt  provenire,  praedictas  balleationes  alterius 
sub  intimatione  anathematis  fieri  prohibemus."  He  also  refers  to  Statuta  Joannis  Archi- 
episcopi  Canttiarensis,  a.d.  1279,  and  mentions  from  the  Necrologium  Ecclesiae  Parisiensisy 
vii.  :  "Idus  Januarii  obiit  Hugo  Clemens  Decanus  noster  et  Sacerdos"  [frater  Henrici 
dementis  Franciae  Marescalli].  "Procuravit  etiam  salubriter  et  devote,  quod  Festum 
B.  Joannis  Evangelistae  post  Nativitatem  Domini,  quod  prius  negligenter  et  joculariter 
agebatur,  solenniter  et  devote  celebraretur  in  Ecclesia  nostra,"  etc. 

*  "  Rex  quidam  misit  cuidam  militi  bacones,  ut  ipsos  venderet  et  vestes  contra  festum 
Natale  sibi  compararet.  Sed  stultus  miles  in  festo  bacones  a  dextris  et  a  sinistris  circa  se 
suspendit,  et  alii  milites  egregie  induti  apparentes,  ille  cum  baconibus  apparuit  vestitus. 
Cui  cum  requireretur,  cui  hoc  fecisset,  dixit  quod  talem  induit  qualem  sibi  misit  dominus, 
nee  illam  voluit  mutare "  (Thomas  Wright,  A  Selection  of  Latin  Stories,  London,  1842, 
p.  112,  No.  cxxii.  De  Milite  Stulto,  from  the  MS.  Harleana,  No.  3244,  of  the 
thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century).  So  in  the  German  epic  of  Meier  Helmbrecht,  v., 
1158-1160,  the  lines  appear: 

'*  Daz  hilfet  mir  daz  ich  sol  tragen 
gewant  ze  wlhnahten 
swie  ich  daz  mac  betrachten." 


OF  THE     * 

UNiVERSiTY 

OF 


V 


1 68  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

Christmas  fairs  were  instituted  at  various   places,^  and   family  gatherings 
were  held  about  the  same  time.^ 

In  addition  to  the  usages  enumerated  in  former  chapters  which  can 
be  directly  derived  from  Roman  Calends-of-January  customs,  there  now 
evolved  a  number  of  beliefs  and  habits,  legends  and  usages,  springing  from  a 
purely  Christian  soil,  and  showing  how  deep  root  Christianity  had,  in  the 
course  of  time,  taken  in  Germanic  minds.  The  song  Rorate  Coeli  had  not 
been  sung  in  vain  for  so  many  centuries.^  Founded  upon  it,  the  folk-belief 
had  sprung  up  that  at  Christmas  the  heavens  really  gave  a  special  and 
beneficial  dew,  which  blessed  everything  that  came  in  contact  with  it.  The 
Church  added  to  this  automatic  benediction,  which  every  year  took  place 
in  commemoration  of  the  birth  of  God,  another  more  express  one, 
which  took  the  form  of  a  benediction  spoken  by  the  priest  from  the  altar. 
Out  of  this  both  Great  Britain  and  Germany  evolved  popular  customs.^ 
According  to  Franz  Wessel's  description  of  the  Roman  Catholic  service  at 

^So  in  A.D.  1461,  in  Kempen,  Rhine-country;  Town-Archive,  Document  No.  367, 
April  18,  1461,  Annalen  des  historischen  Vereins  fur  den  Niederrhein,  Vol.  LXV.,  p.  42. 
Archbishop  Dietrich  of  Cologne  allowed  the  town  a  fair  of  six  days  at  St.  Jacob  (July  25), 
and  St.  Thomas  (December  21).  Compare  also  Document  No.  387  of  March  10,  1465  ; 
St.  Jacob  is  one  of  the  days  which  frequently  divide  the  summer  into  two  parts,  previous 
to  the  introduction  of  the  summer  solstice  of  June  24. 

^Johannis  de  Fordun,  Scotichronicon  cum  Supplementis  et  Continuatione  Walteri 
Boweri,  Edinburgh,  1759,  Vol.  II.,  p.  59,  Lib.  IX.,  chap,  xlviii.,  under  the  years  1231  to 
1233  :  "  Patricius  comes  de  Dumbar,  aeger  corpore,  convocavit  filios  et  filias,  cognatos  et 
vicinos,  ut  festa  Dominicae  nativitatis  secum  celebrarent.  Peractis  quatuor  diebus  vocat 
Adam  abbatem  de  Melros,  et  ab  eo  extremam  unctionem  accepit  ac  habitum  religionis, 
induit  se  monachum,  et  ultimum  valedicens  omnibus,  diem  clausit  extremum."  Bower 
having  written  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  there  being  no  earlier  evidence 
for  this  statement,  the  habit  of  celebrating  Christmas  in  the  family  circle  cannot  be  set  down 
as  of  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

3 "  Rorate  coeli  desuper  et  nubes  pluant  justum "  was  sung  on  Wednesday  after  the 
third  Advent,  and  later  on  the  fourth  Advent,  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnting  des  deutschen 
Mittelalters,  I.,  169. 

*Gervasius  of  Tilbury  wrote  about  1200 :  "Apud  antiquos  Britanniae  inolevit,  quod  in 
nocte  natalis  Domini  ponunt  manipulum  avenae  sub  dio,  aut  vasculum  aliquod  plenum 
avenae  vel  hordei,  ut,  si  fortassis,  ut  assolet  evenire,  pestis  mortifera  coeperit  alia  tangere, 
ex  illo  vel  hordeo  vel  avena,  super  quam  asserunt  rorem  coelestem  nutu  divino  quotannis 
hora  nativitatis  Dei  descendere."     Liebrecht,  Gervasius  von  Tilbury,  s.  2,  chap.  xii. 


NATIVITY,   CHRISTES   M^SS,  AND  CHRISTMAS  169 

Stralsund  before  the  year  1523,  a  similar  ceremony  took  place  there, 
which  was  even  named  after  Christ's  birth.  When  a  child  was  bom,  its 
brothers  and  sisters  used  to  receive  little  presents  which  were  called  "  child's- 
foot,"  Kindsfuss.  By  that  name  also  was  called  the  gift  which  all  the  domestic 
animals  got  on  the  occasion  of  Christ's  birth.^  That  the  same  custom 
was  still  existing  about  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  is  witnessed  by 
Nicolaus  Gryse's  Spegel  des  antichristlichen  Pawestdoms? 

When  Charlemagne  forbade^  drunkenness  in  general;  the  conjurations 
by  St.  Stephan,  himself,  or  his  sons;  and  the  participation  in  banquets 
of  bishops  and  abbots, — this  applied  to  the  habit  of  men  drinking  on 
St.  Stephan's  day,  as  on  other  saints'  days,  to  the  memory  of  the 
saint  of  the  day,  a  habit  called  later  Stephanas  minne,  Johannes  minne, 
Martinis  minne.  In  the  same  way  they  had,  in  pre-Christian  times, 
drunk  to  the  memory  of  their  gods.  To  speak,  however,  on  the  basis  of 
this  passage,  of  Stephanas  minne  as  a  special  custom,  as,  e.g.^  Ulrich  Jahn 
does/  is  out  of  place — for  such  a  custom  cannot  be  proved  to  have 
existed  before  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  or  800  years  after 
Charlemagne,  and  even  then  it  appears  not  as  a  popular,  but  as  a  purely 

^  When  the  peasants  there  had  fasted  on  Christmas  eve  till  they  saw  the  stars  appear 
in  the  sky — "so  drogen  se  garuen  in  de  koppele  efte  sus  in  de  lucht,  dadt  se  de  windt,  sne, 
rip  efte  sus  de  lucht  beschinen  konde.  Dadt  hetede  men  des  morgens  kindesvodt ;  dadt 
deelde  men  des  morgen  allem  vth,  schloch  eine  garue  2  efte  3  vth  vndt  gaf  den  swinen, 
koyen,  enten,  gensen,  dad  se  alle  des  kindesvothes  geneten  scholdenn." 

^Rostock,  1593,  De  I.  Beal,  where  we  are  told  the  following:  "An  S.  Steffens  dage 
wyhet  men  nicht  alleine  dat  water,  sonderen  ock  den  Hauer  vnd  allerley  Korn,  mit  etlyken 
auergelouischen  gebeden  vnd  affgodischen  Criitzslegen  in,  vnd  sprickt,  dat  solckes  an 
dissem  dage  ingesegendes  korn,  dem  vehe  krefftige  stercke  geue,  mehr  alse  dat  vngewyhede, 
vnd  wenn  ydt  geseyet,  sehr  vele  fruchte  bringe,  ock  den  Minschen  de  daruan  ethen, 
Lyues  vnd  der  Seelen  gesundtheit  mitdele."  Ulrich  Jahn,  Deutsche  Opfergebrdtiche,  pp.  277, 
278,  where  a  great  number  of  cases  are  given  in  which  that  custom  still  survives. 

^ Acta  Concilionim,  Parisiis,  1714,  Vol.  IV.,  col.  846,  Caroli  Magni  Regis  Capitula 
alia,  X.  ;  Schannat,  Concilia  Gervianica,  I.,  p.  286,  chap,  iii.,  anni  789:  "Omnino  pro- 
hibendum  est  omnibus  ebrietatis  malum  :  et  istas  conjurationes,  quas  faciunt  per  sanctum 
Stephanum,  aut  per  nos,  aut  per  filios  nostros,  prohibemus ;  et  praecipimus  ut  episcopi 
vel  abbates  non  vadant  per  casam  miscendo." 

*In  his  book.  Die  deuischen  Opfergebrduche  bei  Ackerbau  und  Viekzucht,  Breslau,  1884, 
P-  273- 


176 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


ecclesiastical  custom.^  So  it  is  with  Johannes  minne,  which  was  drunk  to 
the  memory  of  John  the  Evangelist  on  December  25.  From  the  fifteenth 
century  onwards,  the  Church,  in  its  commemoration  of  the  legend  that  John 
the  Apostle  destroyed  the  poison  contained  in  a  cup  by  making  the  sign 
of  the  cross  over  it,  adopted  that  custom  by  the  repetition  of  that  bene- 
diction as  part  of  the  service.  The  blessed  cup  was  regarded  by  the  people 
as  a  means  useful  for  all  kinds  of  things,  and  wine  blessed  at  that  opportunity 
enjoyed  a  great  reputation.^  Johannes  Hebe  ax\(i  Johannts  trunk  appear  for  it.^ 
In  the  marvellous  night  on  which  the  Saviour  was  born,  the  most  extra- 
ordinary things  happened,  according  to  the  Christian  legend.  The  animals 
rejoiced  in  the  salvation  that  was  bestowed  on  the  world,  in  the  rivers 
there  ran  wine  instead  of  water,  and  the  trees  in  the  forest  began  to  bud 
and  bloom  all  in  one  night  in  spite  of  the  ice  and  snow  by  which  the 
fields  were  covered.  Ecclesiastical  fancy  had  played  with  these  things  for 
some  time,  eloquent  preachers  had  with  them  adorned,  and  lent  impressive- 
ness  to,  their  sermons,  so  that  at  last  it  became  a  popular  belief  that  every 
year,  at  the  hour  when  Christ  was  born,  the  same  miracles  happened  again.^ 


^  Fischart,  Bienenkorb,  I.,  chap,  ii.,  p.  63:  "Zu  Freuburg  in  Preiszgau  bey  den 
Johanniten  an  einem  silbernen  Kettlin  ein  Stein,  darmit  S.  Stephan  gesteiniget  ward : 
denselben  legt  man  jahrlich  an  S.  Stephanstag  in  einen  Kelch,  geusst  Wein  dariiber,  gibt 
dem  opferenden  Volck  darab  zu  trincken,  das  heisst  ftir  S.  Johanns-Segen  S.  Stephans- 
wein,  soil  fiir  die  Baermutter  gut  seyn." 

^  A  large  part  of  the  more  important  literature  for  this  item  is  quoted  by  Ulrich  Jahn, 
Die  deutschen  Opfergebrdtiche  ^ei  Ackerbau  uttd  Viehziicht,  Breslau,  1844,  p.  269  ss.  :  "Seb. 
Franck,  1567;  Thomas  Naogeorgus,  1553;  Burckhardt  Waldis ;  Strigenitius ;  Nicolaus 
Gryse,   1593;   Matthesius ;   Petrus  Mosellanus ;   Fibiger,  1675." 

^  Stddtechroniken,  X.,  375;  III.,  149;  XL,  673.  Rarely  is  it  transferred  to  June  24. 
Wiener  Sitzungsberichte,  XL.,  180;  Grotefend,  Zeitrechnung,  I.,  99;  Spiess,  Archivalische 
Nebenarbeiten,  mentions  a  foundation  from  the  year  1484:  "  Daz  man  davon  alle  jar 
schike  und  bestell  wein  doselbst  zum  goczhausz  an  sandt  Johannstag  zu  weynachten  so  man 
dem  volck  pfligt  ausz  dem  kelch  sandt  Johanns  mynn  zu  geben  ; "  Grotefend,  Ibid.^  I., 
100;  Birlinger,  Aus  Schwaben,  II.,   158,  and  II.,   122. 

^  A  fine  example  for  the  evolution  of  a  Christmas  legend  into  a  popular  belief  is  con- 
tained in  Die  Pilgerfahrt  des  Ritters  Arnold  von  Harff,  ed.  by  Dr.  G.  v.  Groote,  Koln, 
i860  (a  description  of  a  journey  to  the  Orient,  A.D.  1496-99),  p.  26,  where  a  church  at 
Rome  is  mentioned:  "Item  beneven  deser  kirchen  is  ein  pallais  zo  broecken  den  der 
keyser  Octavianus   lies   bouwen.      He  vragde  die  affgoede   ind   de   bouwelude  wie  lange 


NATIVITY,  CHRISTES   M^SS,   AND  CHRISTMAS  jyi 

An  Arabian  geographer  of  the  tenth  century i  is  the  first  to  tell  the  story 
that,  in  the  night  between  December  24  and  25,  the  trees  of  the  forest 
actually  stand  in  full  blossom,  and  this  belief  is  carried  through  Spain  and 
France  to  Germany  and  Great  Britain.  ^  On  German  ground  it  appears 
first  in  a  saint's  life,  the  life  of  St.  Hadwigis,  who  was  born  about  1180 
in  Franken.  The  story  tells  of  her :  "  Once,  when  she  was  young,  on 
Christmas  day  somebody  entered  the  room,  saying,  while  she  was  sitting  on 
the  table,  that  a  cherry  tree  in  the  garden  stood  in  full  blossom.  She,  on 
hearing  this,  sent  him  back  in  order  to  see  whether  the  buds  sprang  from 
the  lower  or  from  the  upper  part  of  the  tree.  He  went,  and  on  his  return 
reported  that  the  tree  blossomed  at  its  lower  branches.  But  she  said : 
'That  is  a  sign  of  the  coming  mortality.  Many  poor  will  die  this  year.' 
And  as  she  foretold,  so  it  happened."^ 

der  pallais  waell  stayn  moechte.  Do  spraich  ein  stimme  van  dem  hemell,  he  seulde  stain 
also  lange  bis  dat  ein  maget  in  junferlicher  reinicheit  ein  kint  geberet.  Doe  spraich  der 
keiser  Octavianus  :  soe  wirt  he  ewich  stain,  want  sulch  is  neit  moegelich.  Darumb  lies  er 
in  des  tempels  muire  hauwen  :  Teviplum  eternitatis,  ein  tempel  der  ewicheit.  Doe  nu 
Cristus  unser  herre  van  Maria  der  reiner  maget  geboren  waert,  doe  veil  des  tempels  vil  dar 
neder  ind  noch  all  jairs  zo  cristmissen  veldt  ein  stuck  der  muyren  van  dem  tempel." 

^  Georg  Jacob,  Studien  in  arabischen  Geographen,  Heft  I,,  5,  pp.  8,  9,  and  Heft  IV.,  5, 
pp.   171,   172. 

^  Christ  Himself  as  a  child  sitting  on  a  tree  covered  all  over  with  candles  appears  in 
the  Old  French  epic,  "Durmars  le  galois,"  of  the  thirteenth  century,  151,  2  ss. ;  155, 
60  ss. ;  158,  17  ss.  (Alwin  Schulz,  Das  hofische  Leben  zu7-  Zeit  der  Minnesinger,  Leipzig, 
1889,  I.,  p.  364;  Simrock,  Handbiich  der  deutschen  Mythologie,  5th  ed.,  Bonn,  1878, 
p.  572:  "Durmars  sees  a  tree  whose  branches  are  covered  from  top  to  bottom  with  lit 
candles,  of  which  some  stand  properly  and  some  upside  down.  But  still  more  shining 
than  these,  a  resplendent  child  is  sitting  on  the  top.  Terrified  and  wondering  what  this 
means,  Durmars  asks  the  Pope,  and  receives  the  answer :  '  The  lit  tree  is  humanity,  the 
upright  lights  are  the  good  men,  the  reversed  lights  the  bad  men,  the  child  is  the 
Saviour.'" 

*Aufsess  und  Mone,  Anzeiger  fiir  Kunde  des  deutschen  Mittelalters,  III.,  Niimberg, 
1834,  col.  10,  probably  of  the  thirteenth  century:  "Quoniam  eo  tempore,  dum  adhuc 
iuvenis  esset,  in  die  natalis  domini  venit  qui  diceret  coram  ea  sedente  in  mensa,  quod  arbor 
una  cerasus  stans  in  horto  recentibus  esset  floribus  decorata.  Quod  audiens  misit  ad  con- 
siderandum,  si  praedicti  flores  in  inferiori  aut  in  superiori  parte  arboris  pulularent.  Qui 
missus  fuerat,  renunciavit  arborem  in  ramis  inferioribus  florescentem.  At  ilia,  signum  est, 
inquit,  mortalitatis  futurae.  Multi  enim  pauperes  morientur  isto  anno.  Et  sic,  ut  prae- 
dixerat  omnino  evenit." 


172  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

This  is  a  legend.  But  a  century  later  we  find  the  same  thing  as  a 
belief  purposely  furthered  by  the  Church.^  A  bishop  tells,  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend,  of  two  apple  trees  which  on  Christmas  night  blossomed  and 
ripened.  A  nobleman  testifies  to  the  truth  of  the  affair,  describing  the 
colour  of  the  apples,  and  stating  that  he  had  held  them  in  his  own  hands. 
About  1430  the  same  story  is  told  of  the  neighbourhood  of  Nurnberg,^ 
by  a  theologian,  Johannes  Nider.  He  reports  :  "  Not  far  from  Nurnberg 
there  stood  a  miraculous  tree.  .  .  .  Every  year  in  the  wildest  and  most 
disagreeable  time  of  the  year,  invariably  and  only  on  the  night  of  Christ's 
birth,  when  the  Virgin  of  Virgins  .  .  .  gave  birth  to  the  son  of  God, 
it  bore  blooming  apples  the  size  of  a  thumb.  .  .  .  Therefore  every 
year,  trustworthy  people  go  there  from  Nurnberg  and  the  neighbouring 
regions  and  keep  watch  all  night  at  that  place  to  test  the  truth  of  the 
thing.  A  tree  similar  to  this  one  in  every  respect  is  found  in  the 
diocese  of  Bamberg."  From  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
belief  spread  over  all  Germany,  being  attested  again  and  again  in  various 
popular  books  and  chronicles  of  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  so  that  it  became  one  of  the  most  popular  parts  of  the 
German  Christmas  creed  of  modern  times.^  In  England  the  story 
appears  somewhat  later,  but  has  got  a  peculiar  form.  Legend  tells  that 
after  Christ's  death  Joseph  of  Arimathea  came  to  England  and  settled 
at  Glastonbury.  There  he  was,  therefore,  specially  revered,  there  his  grave 
was  said  to  be,  and  there  in  the  crypt  his  coffin  was  shown.  Although 
the  legend  bears  the  stamp  of  learned  origin,  and  was  perhaps  invented 
by  William  of  Malmesbury,  yet  from  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century 


1  Letter  of  the  Bishop  of  Bamberg  to  Nicolaus  von  Dinkelsbiihl  of  January  16, 
1426,  in  the  Court  Library  of  Vienna,  No.  4899,  fol.  312 ;  von  Perger,  Deutsche 
Pflanzensagen,  Stuttgart  und  Oehringen,  1864,  p.  57. 

"^  F.  A.  Reuss,  Kleine  Beitraege  in  the  Jahresbericht  fur  den  historischen  Verein 
fur  Mittelfranken,  1859,  p.  95. 

8  An  extensive  sketch  of  the  further  development  of  that  belief  is  found  in  my 
Geschkhtc  der  deutschen  Weihnacht,  Leipzig,  1893,  pp.  219-255,  chap,  viii.,  Die  bliihenden 
Bdunte  der  Weihnacht. 


NATIVITY,   CHRLSTES   MiESS,    AND   CHRISTMAS  173 

Joseph  was  regarded  in  England  as  a  kind  of  national  saint. ^  He  was 
said  to  have  brought  with  him  his  walking-stick,  which  he  planted  in  the 
ground  of  his  new  home.  Like  Aaron's  rod,  or  like  Tanhfiser's  staff  in  the 
thirteenth  century  legend  (from  a  mixture  with  which  the  story  of  Joseph 
of  Arimathea  has  arisen),  it  put  forth  leaves ;  further  it  took  to  the  habit 
of  blossoming  every  year  on  the  eve  of  Christ's  Nativity.  Whilst  in  reality 
the  thorn  from  which  the  staff  was  cut,  the  Crataegus  praecox,  blossoms 
in  November  when  the  weather  is  mild,  the  Christian  legend  connects 
it  firmly  with  the  night  of  Christ's  birth.  An  old  report  on  it^  gives  the 
following  account:  "Mr.  Anthony  Hinton,  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Earle 
of  Pembroke,  did  inoculate,  not  long  before  the  late  civill  warres  (ten 
yeares  or  more),  a  bud  of  Glastonbury  Thome,  on  a  thorne,  at  his  farm 
house,  at  Wilton,  which  blossoms  at  Christmas,  as  the  other  did.  My 
mother  has  had  branches  of  them  for  a  flower-pott,  several  Christmasses, 
which  I  have  seen.  Elias  Ashmole,  Esq.,  in  his  notes  upon  Theatrum 
Chymicum,  saies  that  in  the  churchyard  of  Glastonbury  grew  a  walnutt 
tree  that  did  putt  out  young  leaves  at  Christmas,  as  doth  the  King's 
Oak  in  the  New  Forest.  In  Parham  Park,  in  Suffolk  (Mr.  Boutele's), 
is  a  pretty  ancient  thorne,  that  blossomes  like  that  at  Glastonbury;  the 
people  flock  hither  to  see  it  on  Christmas  Day.  But  in  the  rode  that 
leades  from  Worcester  to  Droitwiche  is  a  black  thorne  hedge  at  Clayes, 
half  a  mile  long  or  more,  that  blossoms  about  Christmas-day,  for  a 
week  or  more  together.  Dr.  Ezerel  Tong  sayd  that  about  Rumly-Marsh,  in 
Kent,  are  thornes  naturally  like  that  near  Glastonbury.  The  Soldiers 
did  cutt  downe  that  near  Glastonbury;  the  stump  remaines."^  When,  in 
1752,  September  2  was  by  law  turned  into  September  14,  Christmas 
was  held  twelve  days  earlier  than  the  year  before.  This  afforded  a  good 
opportunity  of  watching  the  qualities  of  these  legendary  thorns,  and 
this  was  made  use  of  at  various  places.     Records  of  it  are  preserved  in 

^  The  Legend  of  Joseph   of  Arimathea  (709  verses)  has  been  edited  by  Prof.  W.  W. 
Skeat ;  and  by  Frederick  Furnivall,  1862,  for  the  Roxburgh  Club. 
2  Aubrey,  Nattiral  History  of  Wiltshire. 
^Ashton,  A  Righte  Merrie  Christmasse,  pp.   105-106. 


174 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


the  Historical  Chronicle  (for  January)  of  the  Gentleman^s  Magazine  for 
1753,  which  contains  a  striking  report,  dated  :  "  Quainton  in  Buckinghamshire, 
December  24.  Above  2000  people  came  here  this  night,  with  lanthorns 
and  candles,  to  view  a  black  thorn  which  grows  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  which  was  remembered  (this  year  only)  to  be  a  slip  from  the  famous 
Glastonbury  Thorne,  that  it  always  budded  on  the  24th,  was  full  blown 
the  next  day,  and  went  all  off  at  night;  but  the  people,  finding  no 
appearance  of  a  bud,  'twas  agreed  by  all,  that  December  25,  N.S., 
could  not  be  the  right  Christmas  Day,  and,  accordingly,  refused  going 
to  Church  and  treating  their  friends  on  that  day,  as  usual :  at  length 
the  affair  became  so  serious  that  the  ministers  of  the  neighbouring  villages,  in 
order  to  appease  the  people,  thought  it  prudent  to  give  notice  that  the 
old  Christmas  Day  should  be  kept  holy  as  before. 

"  Glastonbury,     A  vast  concourse  of  people  attended  the  noted  thorns 

on  Christmas  Eve,  New  Stile ;  but,  to  their  great  disappointment,  there  was 

no  appearance  of  its  blowing,   which  made   them   watch   it   narrowly   the 

5th   of  Jan.,  the    Christmas  day,    Old  Style,  when  it  blow'd  as  usual." 

From  Roman  times  the  adorning  of  the  houses  with  laurel  and  green 

4  trees  at  the  Calends  of  January  had  been  known  to  the  Germanics ;  and 
when    Christmas   finally  took   the   place   of  the   Roman   beginning   of  the 

^■c  year,  the  usage,  like  so  many  others,  was  transferred  to  that  date.  Beside 
the  conifers,  laurel  and  evergreen,  bay  and  box,  holly  and  mistletoe  were 
used  for  that  purpose.^  Then  the  legend  of  the  blossoming  trees  of  the 
Christmas  night  reached  the  Germanics,  and  before  long  turned  into  a 
popular  belief,  which  ascribed  that  wonder  to  every  night  between  December 
24  and  December  25.  Out  of  the  union  of  these  two  elements  the  usage 
4.  of  the  Christmas  tree  seems  to  have  sprung,  which,  fully  developed,  appears 
for  the  first  time  in  ^^4.  at  Strassburg,  the  same  town  in  which  the 
adorning  of.  houses  with  fir  branches  at  New  Year  is  witnessed  at  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.^     Fir  trees 

^  Compare  pp.  103  to  106. 

"^Memorabilia   quaedam   Argentorati  ohsei'vata,    which    I   edited    in   the  Jahrhuch  fiir 
Geschichte,    Sprache    und    Literatur    Elsass-Lotkringens,   VI.,     1890,    p.    62,    ss.  :    "Auft 


NATIVITY,   CHRISTES   M^SS,   AND   CHRISTMAS  175 

were  put  up  in  the  rooms,  adorned  with  roses  cut  out  of  many-coloured 
papers,  apples,  leaf-gold,  sweets,  etc.,  and  fixed  in  a  rectangular  frame.^ 
These  tr£es,  with  their  artificial  flowers  and  fruits,  remind  the  reader  too 
clearly  of  me  legendary  blossoming  and  fruit-bearing  apple  trees  of  Christmas 
eve  to  admit  of  the  connection  with  them  being  overlooked.  And  even 
the  direct  link  between  the  two  is  supplied  by  popular  custom. 

Whilst,  on  the  one  hand,  evergreens  were  applied,  and  by  preference 
such  as  bore  fruits  of  a  colour  different  from  that  of  the  leaves,  like  holly 
with  its  red  berries,  and  mistletoe  with  its  white  ones ;  on  the  other  hand, 
since  the  sixteenth  century  at  least,  boughs  of  cherry  trees  and  hawthorn 
were,  a  fortnight  before  New  Year,  put  into  water  in  a  warm  place,  so  that 
they  had  a  chance  to  bud  and  bloom  at  New  Year,  or  later  on  at  Christmas. 
The  blossoms  were  used  as  an  oracle.  Were  they  numerous  and  beautiful 
they  meant  luck;  were  they  scarce  and  crippled,  or  not  apparent  at  all, 
they  were  considered  unlucky.  In  all  probability  something  similar  was 
done  with  the  green  trees  at  the  Roman  Calends  of  January.  Nay,  this  was 
the  natural  consequence,  when  cherry  trees,  hawthorn,  or  similar  early-blooming 
bushes  were  put  into  water  in  order  to  be  kept  fresh  for  some  time.  The 
blossom  oracle  looks  very  much  like  the  Roman  cake  oracle  with  the  Strenae ; 
and  had  not  special  heathen  ideas  and  practices  been  connected  with  them, 
the  Church  would  scarcely  have  taken  the  trouble  to  forbid  their  application 
to  festive  purposes.  A  Salzburg  regulation  about  forests,  of  1755,  forbids 
the  taking  from  the  forests  oi  Bdchlboscheii  or  Weihnachisboschen^  i.e.,  bushes — 
not  trees — so  that  the  custom  of  putting  up  bushes  at  Christmas  must 
then  have  prevailed. ^  In  an  etching  by  Joseph  Kellner,  Das  Christbescherens 
Oder  der  frohliche  Morge?i,  which,  according  to  the  costumes,  has  to  be 
dated  about  1790,  the  presentation  of  Christmas  gifts  is  shown.      In  the 


Weihenachten  richtett  man  Dannenbaum  zu  Strasburg  in  den  Stuben  auff,  daran  hencket 
man  rossen  auss  vielfarbigem  papier  geschnitten,  Aepfel,  Zischgolt,  Zucker,  etc.  Man 
pflegt  darum  ein  viereckent  ramen  zu  machen." 

^  The  further  evolution  and  spreading  of  the  Christmas  tree  is  elaborately  treated  in  my 
book,  Die  Geschichte  der  deutschen   Weihnacht,  chap,  ix.,  pp.  256-278,  and  pp.   35I-355' 

''' Schmeller,  Bayrisches  Worterbuch,  I.,  p.  271.  The  probable  etymological  connection 
between  "^aV^/boschen"  and  the  '^baadus  episcopalis"  was  pointed  out  on  pp.  100  and  1 10. 


176  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

corner  of  the  room  stands  a  fresh  green  tree  in  foUage,  which  bears  three 
lit  candles  and  other  adornraents,i  and  the  autobiography  of  the  painter, 
Albrecht  Adam,  who  was  born  in  1786  at  NdrdUngen,  tells  that,  in  his 
youth  at  Nordlingen,  not  the  dark  fir  tree  was  in  use  at  Christmas  eve, 
but  months  before  Christmas,  a  cherry  or  agriot  tree  was  put  into  a  big 
pot  in  the  corner  of  the  room,  so  that  at  Christmas  it  stood  in  full  bloom 
and  extended  along  the  ceiling.  That  was  regarded  as  a  great  ornament, 
and  indeed  added  much  to  the  festive  joy.  One  family  competed  with 
the  other  to  have  the  finest  tree,  and  the  members  of  that  house  which 
had  the  most  beautiful  were  very  proud.^  The  same  was  done  as  late 
as  1858  with  cherry  boughs,  elder  boughs,  and  lime  boughs,  near  Coburg.^ 
So  there  is  no  doubt  the  modern  Christmas  tree  is  simply  an  artificial 
substitute  for  these  trees  and  bushes  in  bloom. 

The  Roman  Calends-of-January  customs  had  in  themselves  not  the 
power  of  transforming  Germanic  usage  and  belief.  But  inspired  with  a 
new  life  by  the  Christian  religion  and  its  legendary  apparatus,  they  produced 
after  the  fourteenth  century  quite  a  new  world  of  popular  tradition,  which 
has  all  too  long  been  regarded  as  a  relic  of  purely  Germanic  antiquity,  but 
which  we  now,  on  the  basis  of  historical  evidence,  are  entitled  to  claim 
as  a  great  product  of  the  popularisation  of  the  religion  of  the  cross 
among  the  Christian  Germanic  nations. 


^  My  Geschichte  der  deutschen   Weihnacht,  pp.  248-9. 

'^Albrecht  Adam's  Selbstbiographie,  herausgegeben  von  Holland,  p.  23. 

3  A.  Schleicher,   Volkstumliches  aus  Sonneberg,  Weimar,  1858,  pp.  91,  92. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  SCANDINAVIAN  YEAR. 

While  there  is  a  continuous  stream  of  literary  tradition  between  the 
Roman  and  the  Germanic  periods  in  the  west  of  Europe,  and  while 
we,  by  the  medium  of  historical  documents,  can  show  not  only  how 
political  power  passed  over  from  the  Romans  to  the  Germanics  in  Gaul, 
Germany,  and  Britain,  but  also  how  Roman  civilisation  and  culture, 
Roman  habits  and  customs,  Roman  writing  and  learning,  the  Roman  year, 
and  the  Roman  week,  Roman  months,  and  the  names  of  Roman  week- 
days were  gradually  accepted  by,  and  popularised  among,  the  Western 
Germanics — there  exist  no  such  connective  literary  links  between  the 
Roman  and  the  Scandinavian  worlds.  There  we  have  no  early  records  at 
all  that  might  compare  with  our  Latin  sources  from  the  first  to  the  eighth 
century,  dealing  with  Roman  and  Western  Germanic  relations.  We  have 
no  literary  documents  in  the  Scandinavian  dialects  of  the  eighth,  ninth, 
tenth,  and  eleventh  centuries  which  could  stand  by  the  side  of  our  oldest 
Old-High-German,  Old  Saxon,  and  Anglo-Saxon  poetry.  Even  the  history 
of  the  texts  which  were  written  down  in  Iceland,  after  the  introduction 
about  A.D.  1 150  of  Roman  characters,  is  in  part  very  uncertain,  very 
few  fragments  having  come  down  to  us  written  before  the  year  1250 — a 
time  when  for  many  centuries  Western  civilisation  had  been  influencing 
Scandinavian  tribes  at  home,  a  great  number  of  Eastern  stories  and  fairy- 
tales had  been  communicated  to  them,  and  the  Viking  voyages  of  large 
numbers   of  North-Eastern    Germanics    had    on    the   coasts   of  Germany, 

Britain,    Gaul,   Spain,    Italy,    and    Asia    Minor    brought    these    men    into 

M 


178  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

close  contact  and  eye  to  eye  with  the  whole  world  of  Roman,  Romance, 
and  even  partly  of  Greek  and  Eastern  civilisation.  Yet  we  possess,  from 
the  pen  of  a  Greek,  one  sixth  century  report  on  a  Scandinavian  festival, 
though  on  one  which,  under  all  circumstances,  must  have  been  partial 
only.  When  in  the  sixth  century  the  inhabitants  of  northern  Scandinavia 
had  been  thirty-five  days  without  sunlight,  they  used  to  send  messengers 
to  the  summits  of  the  highest  mountains  to  look  out  whether  now  the 
sun  would  soon  return.  When  he  had  been  seen,  it  was  announced 
everywhere  that  in  five  days  the  light  would  reach  the  ground  of  the 
valleys.  Then  a  great  rejoicing  arose,  and  the  highest  festival  of  the  year 
was  celebrated.  For  although  the  same  event  took  place  every  year,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Norwegian  islands  were  perhaps  afraid  it  might  happen 
that  the  sun  would  not  return.^      In    the   sixth   century,   the  day  of  the 

^  Procopius,  Bellum  Gothicum,  II.,  15:  Me^'  o6j  St?  Aavwi'  rh  ?6vr)  irapiSpafiov  oi 
^La^ofiivuv  a<pai  twv  ryde  pap^dpuv.  ivOivde  es  uKeavbv  d^iKS/xevoi  ivavriWovTO,  QoCXy 
re  7r/30(rx^»'Tey  ry  vfjffip  avrov  i/Meivav.  ^ari  8i  r/  GoiJXt;  fieyiffrri  es  ^70;/.  Bperraviai  ykp 
avTT}v  wKiov  ij  SeKairXaffiav  ^v/x^alvei  elvat.  Keirai  8i  ai'irrji  TroXXy  dirodev  irpbs  §oppav 
Avefiov.  iv  Ta&rrj  rrj  vTrja-q)  yrj  fiiv  ^prrifios  iK  tov  iirl  vXelaTov  Tvyxdvei  odcra,  iv  X^Pf  ^^ 
t£  olKovfxivxi  TpiaKaLSeKa  ^Ovq  ToXvavOpuwdTaTa  'idpvrai'  ^acriXels  ri  elcri  Kard,  ^Ovos  'iKacrrov. 
ivravda  ylverai  dvk  irdv  Itos  davfj-datov.  6  yap  f^Xios  dfjL<f)i  depivhs  fJ.iv  rpoiras  fxdXicrTa 
h  ■iipApai  TeaaapdKovra  ovSafirj  5vei,,  dXXd  di-rjveKW  is  irdvra  tovtov  rbv  XP^^°^  iiirip  yri% 
(palverai.  fi7)<Tl  bk  oiix  ^cffov  ^  ?f  fjarepov  dfi(j)i  tAs  x^'Mf/'"'<3is  rpoirds  -^Xios  ^ikv  is  Tj/jL^pas 
recraapdKOPra  rrjs  v/jffov  raijTris  oiida/XT]  (palverai,  vv^  M  airrTJs  diripavros  KaraKixvTai'  Karrj- 
(peid  re  dir'  avrov  I'x^'  wdvra  tovtov  rbv  xp^fov  toi)s  rrjde  dvOpdiwovs,  ewel  dXX'ffKoLS  iirifilyvvaOai 
yttera^i)  oiiSe/xiqi  M'JX**''^  ^xoi'"'"''  ^f^ol  /xev  otv  is  ra^Trjv  iivai  tt}v  vijaov  rwv  re  elp-qpAvwv 
airrbirrji  yeviffdai,  Kaiirep  yXixo/J-ivip,  rpdirip  ovdevl  ^vvr]v4x^V-  t'^''  P-ivroi,  is  7)ixds  ivdivSe 
d^iKo/Jiivuv  iirvvdavbp.y)v  Sirrf  irork  dtol  re  *  *  dvlax^vros  e'ire  biovros  roh  Kadi]Kovai  xP^vols 
evravda  riXlov,  o'lirep  i/ji,ol  Xbyov  dXridrj  re  /cat  Tricrrbv  ^ippaaav.  rbv  yhp  ifKibv  <f>a<n.  recrcrapd- 
Kovra  Tj/xipas  iKelvas  oil  bieiv  p^v,  uawep  etpyjrai,  (pus  Si  rois  rah-ifi  dvdptbirois  (palveadai 
TTTj  fikv  vpbi  ?w,  TTTj  8i  TTpbs  iciripav.  iireiddv  odv  iiraviCov  atdis  dp.<pl  rbv  bpi^ovrd  re 
yivb/ievos  is  rbv  avrbv  d(plK7)Tai  x^po"}  ofhrep  avrbv  dvicrxovra  rd  irpQra  idpuv,  rjfxipav 
oikb)  Kal  viKja  /dav  iraptpxvi^^^^''  SiapiO/xovvrai.  Kal  ijvlKa  fUvroi  6  rdv  vvktuv  xP^''°^ 
d(piK7)rai,  T^s  ye  aeX-^vrjs  rQ  SpaaOai.  del  rots  dpbpLois  reKpLrjpioijfievoi  rb  ruv  r]/j,ipwv  Xoyi^ovrai 
fiirpov.  oirrjvlKa  di  rrivre  Kal  rpidKovra  T]fiepwv  xp^''o^  '''V  P'O-xpq.  rairig  diabpdfioi  vvKrl, 
(xriXXovral  rives  is  rQv  dpQv  rdj  virep^oXds,  elOifffxivov  avro2s  rovrb  ye,  rbv  re  Stj  ijXiov 
dfiriyiiTT)  ivdivbe  bpQvres  dirayyiXXov<n  rois  Kdroi  dvOpwirois,  8ri  5rj  irivre  i]fj.epQv  ifXios 
avroiis  KaraXdpiipoi.  01  Si  iravSruiel  iravrjpvpl^ovaiv  eiiayyiXia  Kal  ravra  iv  <tk6tij}.  aihrj 
re  QovXlrais  ij  fieylcrrr)  ruv  iopruv  i<Tri.  Sokovcti  ydp  /jloi  TrepiSeeis  dei  yiveadai  oi  vyjaiwrai 
oZroi,  Kaiirep  ravrb  ^vfi^aivov  <T(pl<nv  dvd  irav  iros,  fi-q  irore  a&rofis  iiriXeiTroi  rb  napdirav  6  ■^Xios. 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN   YEAR 


179 


winter  solstice  was  the  19th  of  December,  and  towards  the  end  of  it, 
the  1 8th  of  that  month.  A  period  of  forty  days  of  the  sun  remaining 
below  the  horizon  would,  therefore,  have  extended  from  November  29 
till  January  8.  The  festival  at  the  end  of  it  was  accordingly  the  earlier, 
the  more  southerly  people  lived,  and  the  later,  the  more  northerly.  That 
in  a  region  of  such  northerly  expanse  such  a  custom  should  evolve  is 
almost  as  natural  as  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  arise  in  a  region  in 
which  the  sun  never  stays  for  forty-eight  hours  below  the  horizon.  Therefore 
it  can  scarcely  be  said  to  contribute  anything  to  our  general  knowledge 
of  the  Germanic  division  of  the  year,  and  we  have  rather  to  regard  it  as 
a  singular  curiosity  than  as  a  fact  connected  by  the  link  of  tradition 
with  the  common  stock  of  Germanic  lore,  which  was  at  one  time  believed 
to  be  purest  among  the  Northern  Germanics.  But  probably  it  was 
only  the  peculiar  charm  and  genuineness  of  the  marvellously  clear  and 
beautiful  prose  attained  by  the  inhabitants  of  Iceland  in  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  that  explained  why  the  literature  of  the  North- 
Eastern  Germanics,  from  its  first  becoming  known  to  wider  circles, 
especially  in  Denmark  and  Germany,  was  regarded  by  so  many  scholars 
as  the  true  and  genuine  expression  of  ancient  Germanicism.  There  was 
a  time,  and  it  is  not  so  very  distant,  when  the  products  of  late 
Norwegian  and  Icelandic  poetic  fiction  which  we  are  wont  to  call  by  the 
name  of  the  Older  Edda  (although  that  collection  of  songs  is  not  an 
outline  of  the  art  of  composing  poetry  as  is  the  Edda  of  Snorri  Sturluson) 
were  thought  to  be  the  stock  of  poetry  which  originally  had  been  common 
to  all  Germanic  nations,  and,  therefore,  had  to  be  taken  as  the  basis 
of  Germanic  mythology.  No  serious  scholar  will  now-a-days  maintain 
this  any  longer,  though  in  minor  questions  some  minds  have  by  no 
means  been  freed  from  that  prejudice.  So  Professor  Karl  Weinhold  still 
prefers  to  base  his  conceptions  of  the  Germanic  year  of  ancient  times 
on  a  singular  statement  made  by  Snorri  Sturluson  in  the  first  half  of 
the  thirteenth  century  in  Iceland,  instead  of  taking  as  his  basis  for  such 
a  reconstruction  of  the  ancient  conceptions  on  the  course  of  the  year, 
the  huge  pile  of  solidly  warranted  historical  facts  that  can  be  gathered 
from   contemporaneous  and  principally   Latin   sources,  from    the    first  to 


i8o  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

the  tenth  century  in  Gaul,  Germany,  and  Britain.  He  makes  his  task 
very  easy  of  fulfilment,  by  declaring  that  the  report  given  by  Snorri 
Sturluson  in  chapter  viii.  of  the  Ynglingasaga,  to  the  effect  that  the  Northern 
Germanics  about  the  middle  of  January  made  great  offerings  to  their 
gods  for  fertility,  guarantees  this  as  a  genuine  and  ancient  heathen  custom 
— the  very  proposition  which  has  to  be  proved.^  He  fails,  however,  to 
state  in  what  he  thinks  the  guarantee  to  consist.  Three  times  over  he  has 
elaborately  dealt  with  the  problems  connected  with  the  Germanic  year — 
in  his  pamphlets  on  the  German  division  of  the  year,  and  on  the  German 
names  of  months,  and  in  a  chapter  of  his  Old  North  LifeP-  Whilst  the 
first  of  these  writings  rests  on  the  assumption  that  the  Germanics  divided 
their  year  according  to  solstices  and  equinoxes  (of  which  the  early 
Germanic  tribes  in  reality  knew  so  little  that  they  had  not  even  words 
for  them),  the  second  starts  from  the  few  comparatively  early  attempts  to 
use  the  same  German  names  of  months  over  a  larger  territory,  and  tries 
to  show  in  what  measure  they  were  successful,  instead  of  ascertaining  first 
of  all,  the  early  popular  tradition  about  months  and  their  names  among 
the  various  German  tribes,  and  showing  then  how  it  determined  the  action 
of  those  early  reformers  of  calendar-denominations.  In  it  he  arrives  at 
the  conclusion  that  the  ancient  Germanics  had  had — by  pure  chance — 
the  very  same  division  of  the  year  as  that  reached  by  the  Romans 
through  a  long  course  of  historical  evolution,  with  the  solitary  distinction 
that  the  Germanics  began  their  year  a  quarter  of  a  year  earlier  than  the 
Romans,  viz.,  on  October  i  instead  of  January  i. 

In  his  book  on  old  Scandinavian   life,^  Professor  Weinhold  has  tried 

^  Zeitschrift  des  Vereines  fiir  Volkskunde,  1894,  Heft  I.,  p.  100:  "Die  Nordgermanen 
brachten  zu  dieser  Zeit  (Weinhold  confuses  here  the  winter  solstice  with  the  middle  of 
January,  on  which  the  offerings  previously  to  the  time  about  940  were  made,  according 
to  Heimskringla,  Story  of  Hakon  the  Good,  chap,  xv.,  Morris  and  Magniisson's 
Translation,  Vol.  I.,  p.  163)  die  grossen  Opfer  til  grodhrar,  d.  i.  fiir  die  Fruchtbarkeit 
{Ynglingasaga,  c.  viii.),  eine  Angabe,  die,  wenn  auch  erst  im  13.  Jahrhundert  von  einem 
Christen  gemacht,  dennoch  Echt  und  Altheidnisches  verbiirgt. " 

"^  Karl  Weinhold,  Uber  die  deutsche  Jahrteilung,  Kiel,  1862 ;  Die  deutschen  Monat- 
na7nen,  Halle,   1869,  and  Altnordisches  Leben,  Berlin,   1856,  pp.  371-383. 

^  Altnordisches  Leben,  Berlin,   1856,  pp.  371-383. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  V'EAR  i8i 

to  give  a  theory  of  the  ancient  northern  year.  It  is  true  he  has  leamt 
from  Ideler^  that  the  Runic  ahnanacs  of  Scandinavia  are,  rather  than  of 
Germanic,  of  Roman  and  Christian  origin ;  but  he  has  &iled  to  apply  this 
knowledge  to  the  divisions  of  time  in  use  among  Scandinavians,  and 
identical  with  the  institutions  of  the  almanac  of  old  Rome.  He  thinks  it 
even  probable  that  the  Germanics,  without  foreign  influence,  hit  upon  the 
week  of  seven  dajrs,^  although  it  is  an  established  fact  that  that  Phoenician 
week  came  to  the  Germanic  tribes  through  the  Romans,  as  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  names  of  the  week-days,  which  exactly  correspond  to  the  Roman 
names.  Grimm  assigns  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  a.d.  the  introduction  of 
the  Roman  week  among  the  Germanics,  but  I  should  rather  be  inclined  to 
assign  it  to  the  first  century  before  or  after  Christ's  birth.  Professor  VVein- 
hold's  statements  in  that  book  can  scarcely  be  taken  seriously  any  longer. 
It  is  true  that  the  Germanics  of  Caesar's  time  observed  the  new  moon,  the 
fiill  moon,  and  so  on ;  but  it  is  not  true  that  either  Caesar^  or  Tacitus*  says 
that  decisive  divisions  of  religious  life  were  based  upon  them.^  Weinhold 
infers  from  that  supposition  that  in  Caesar's  time  periods  of  fourteen  days  or 
of  twenty-eight  days  must  have  existed,  and  he  declares  these  periods  of 
twenty-eight  days  to  be  identical  with  months  of  thirty  days.^  In  one 
place"  he  says  that  Germanic  heathendom  is  based  on  things  very  different 
from  the  observation  of  stars,  and  in  another  place®  he  ascribes  to  the 
heathen  Germanics  a  whole  "art"  of  astronomy,  of  which  before  their 
contact  with  Roman  civilisation  they  apparently  knew  next  to  nothing. 
He  speaks  of  a  "  popular  astronomy  "  of  the  ancient  Scandinavians,®  though 
he  adds  that  nothing  is  known  of  it  He  ftirther  states  that  this  astronomy 
(of  which,  according  to  himself,  we  know  nothing)  was  at  first  confined 
to  images  and  likenesses,  and  yet  produced  bye  and  bye  observations  at 
large,  and  chiefly  the  division  of  time.'*'  He  ftirther  maintains  that  the 
first  thing  the  Germanics  did  was  to  fix  "  exactly  "^^  the  four  regions  of 

^  Uber  das  Alter  der  RunenkaUfuUr^  Abhandlungen  der  Berliner  Akademie  der  Wissen- 
schaften,  Philolc^;isch-Historische  Klasse,  1829- :832,  pp.  49-66. 

*  P-  373-  '  Bellum  Galluum,  VI. ,  xviii.  *  Germanta^  chap.  xL 

*  P.  374.  «  P.  375.  7  P.  383.  8  Pp.  371-372- 
9  P.  372.                    1"  P.  372.                    "  P.  372- 


152 


YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 


the  sky,  and  that  the  division  of  the  day  was  based  upon  it,  whilst  in 
reahty  this  is  one  of  the  latest  things  we  find  among  them,  and  was  certainly 
not  arrived  at  without  Roman  influence. 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  among  the  Scandinavians,  there  existed  a 
division  of  the  year  into  two  parts.  As  has  been  shown  already,  etymology 
proves  this  conclusively.^  The  names  of  winter  and  summer  are  common 
Germanic  expressions,  doubtless  much  older  than  any  definite  denomi- 
nation such  as  spring  and  autumn,  in  regard  to  which  Germanic  tongues 
are  much  at  variance  with  each  other.  As  little  true  is  it  that  the  fourfold 
partition  of  the  year  never  took  root  in  Scandinavia,^  an  assertion  which 
is  not  reconcilable  with  his  other  affirmation  (in  1894)  that  the  Germanic 
year  was  based  on  solstices  and  equinoxes.  This  statement,  if  it  implies 
anything,  implies  a  fourfold  partition  of  the  year.  In  reality  that  partition 
took  root,  though  somewhat  late.  The  very  fact  that  the  three  later  months 
of  winter  were  given  a  common  name,  Htmanadir^  mentioned  by  Professor 
Weinhold  himself,^  proves  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  people  had  learnt 
to  count  the  year  in  quarters.  If  he  goes  on  to  declare  that  a  tri-partition 
of  the  year  never  took  root  in  Scandinavia  either,  he  is  as  much  at  discord 
with  himself  as  before.  He  admits  that  the  Norwegian  summer  of  six 
months  is  divided  into  three  three-score-day  tides —  Vaarmoaner,  Sumarmoaner, 
and  Haustmoaner — a  fact  which,  by  its  very  existence,  suggests  a  combination 
of  two  such  periods  into  a  long  hundred  of  days.  This  suggestion  has 
not  failed  to  present  itself  to  his  mind,  as  four  Hues  further  down  he 
makes  the  observation  that  360  days  are  just  three  long  hundreds.  He 
maintains  that  the  phases  of  the  moon  played  a  part  in  the  religious  life 
of  the  ancient  Germanics  (for  which  there  is  no  evidence),  and  yet  does 
not  overlook  the  fact  that  the  Scandinavians  celebrated  three  great  annual 
festivals.  But  he  tries  to  explain  that  fact  away.  I  quite  agree  with 
Professor  Weinhold  that  the  Germanic  year  began  with  the  beginning  of 
winter,  and  that  the  Scandinavian  year  of  olden  times  began  between 
October  9  and  14,  and  that  consequently,^  according  to  the  dual  division 

^  Compare  pp.  5  and  6  of  the  present  book.    ^P.  375.     ^Vtgastyrs  saga,  chap.  iii.    *•?.  378. 
^Weinhold,    Altnordisches    Leben,    p.    376;    Deutsche    Monatnamen,    p.   22;     Edda 
Saemundar,  ed.  Finn  Magnussen,  Havniae,   1828,  III.,   1013,   1015. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN   YEAR  183 

of  the  year,  which  in  historical  times  came  again  ever  more  strongly  into 
the  foreground,  summer  began  between  April  9  and  14.  But  when  he  goes 
on  to  say  that  (while  on  the  preceding  page  he  had  maintained  that  the 
quartering  of  the  year  never  took  root  in  Scandinavia)  these  two  seasons 
of  about  180  days  each,  were  halved  by  solstices  in  midwinter  and  mid- 
summer, putting  the  winter  solstice  on  January  14  and  the  summer  solstice 
on  July  14,  and  calling  January  14  Jbl;  when  he  maintains  that  these 
incisive  days  were  strongly  accentuated  by  religious  festivals,  and  were  the 
principal  religious  points  in  the  course  of  the  year;  when  he  states  that 
the  Northern  year  was  based  entirely  on  the  course  of  nature,  whilst 
before^  he  had  stated  that  it  was  based  on  astronomic  observations, — he 
leaves  entirely  the  basis  of  fact,  and  jumps  into  a  world  of  unjustifiable 
speculation.  And  he  quite  fails  to  establish  his  theory  that  the  Scandinavians 
knew  of  a  division  of  the  year  into  twelve  months  before  they  came  into 
contact  with  the  world  of  Roman  civilisation.  Nobody  is  able  to  point 
out  twelve  names  of  months  which  can,  with  any  probability,  be  assumed 
to  have  been  those  of  the  twelve  alleged  Germanic  months.  In  truth, 
even  the  later  Scandinavians  have  not  twelve  names  which,  in  a  proper 
sense,  could  be  called  month-names,  for  sddhtidh,  sowing-time  (March); 
eggtidh,  egg-time  (April);  heyannir,  heyant,  the  first  part  of  which  is  *'hay" 
are  not  month-names.  According  to  Professor  Weinhold's  own  list  of 
Scandinavian  month-names,^  we  have  the  following  denominations  of  the 
Roman  months : 

October:  gortnanudhr,  called  thus  after  gor,  excrementa  intestinorunif 
from  the  cleaning  of  the  intestines  of  killed  cattle  (?)  \^  New  Icelandic 
>'//>,  after  the  howling  of  the  storm  (?) ;  Danish,  according  to  the  milder 
climate  of  Denmark,  which  allows  work  on  the  field  so  late  in  the  year, 
Sddemaaned,  month  of  sowing,  formerly,  besides  Ridemaaned,  after  the 
rutting  time  of  stags.     (Not  of  swine?) 

November  :  frermdnudhr,  month  of  frost ;   New  Northern,  winter-month. 

December:  hrutmdnudhr,  month  of  rams(?);  Modern  Northic,  'Jul-' 
month ;    New  Icelandic  morsugr,  sucker  or  eater  of  bacon. 

^  On  p.  372.  ^  Pp.  376-378.  ^  The  interrogation  and  exclamation  marks  are  mine. 


184  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

yanuary  :  Thorri  ;  Norwegian  Torre,  Swedish  Thoree — unexplained 
name. 

February  :  Goi;  Norwegian  Gjd,  Swedish  Gdja,  Danish  Goie — unex- 
plained name. 

March  :  sAdhtidh,  sowing-time  (!) ;  einmdnudhr,  important  month  (?) ; 
New  Icelandic,  Odin's  month;  Swedish  Tormaaned,  Thurrmaaned,  month 
with  dry  weather  (?) ;  Norwegian  Krikla  or  Kvine — unexplained. 

April :  eggitdh,  time  of  eggs ;  sieckiidh,  from  putting  up  the  hurdles  for 
lambs;  Danish  Faaremaaned,  month  of  lambs;  New  Icelandic,  month  of 
the  cuckoo  or  harpa — unexplained ;   Swedish  varant,  spring. 

May  :  sdlmcLnudhr,  sun-month  ;  New  Icelandic  eggtid. 

yum  :  selmdnudhr,  from  sel,  arbour;  Swedish,  midsummer;  Danish, 
summer-month,  and  Skdrsomar,  after  the  fleecing  of  the  sheep. 

yuly  :  heyannir,  hoant,  hay-month ;  Danish  Ormemaaned,  worm-month ; 
New  Icelandic  selmdnudhr. 

August  :  kornkurdharmdnudhr,  month  of  reaping;  Swedish  skorde- 
maaned  or  skortant,  the  same  ;  Danish  Homaaned^  hay-month,  and 
Hostmaaned,  harvest-month.  The  New  Icelandic  name  tvtmdnudhr, 
double-month,  cannot,  as  Grimm  supposed  and  Professor  Weinhold  holds,  be 
explained  by  the  fact  "  that  August  in  many  places  shared  its  name  with  a 
neighbour  month  "  (which  feature  August  has  in  common  with  almost  every 
other  month  of  the  year),i  but  is  of  the  same  origin  as  Anglo-Saxon  Thrilidi. 
Its  duplicate  served  as  an  intercalary  month,  or,  in  other  words,  August 
was  the  month  that  was  doubled  in  Scandinavia  in  the  leap  years  under 
the  reign  of  the  pre-Julian  Roman  calendar. 

September :  haustmdnudhr,  harvest-month ;  Danish  Ftskemaaned,  fish- 
month. 

Nobody  will  regard  this  conglomerate  of  mutually  inconsistent  and 
even  contradictory  names  as  having  sprung  from  one  root,  and  being 
genuinely  Germanic.  Most  of  the  names  are  very  vague  attempts  to  give 
native  names  to  the  new  periods  of  about  thirty  days  taken  over  from  the 
Romans.     Even  the  Germanic  denominations  of  the  old  three-score-day  tides 


^  Compare  pp.  13  to  15  of  the  present  book. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN   YEAR  185 

have  been  made  use  of  so  little  for  that  purpose  that  the  common  Germanic 
name  for  the  time  from  November  ii  till  January  11,  or  in  Scandinavia 
from  December  14  to  February  14,  Gothic  liuleis,  as  a  monthly  name 
appears  solely  in  Modern  Northic,  and  there,  of  course,  is  of  artificial 
growth. 

We  know  little  of  the  development  of  the  Scandinavian  year  under 
Roman  influence,  but  we  know  something  about  it.  As  long  as  the  pre- 
Julian  Roman  calendar  prevailed  among  Scandinavians,  an  intercalary 
month  was  put  in  every  fourth  year  by  the  doubling  of  the  month  of  August. 
When  the  Julian  Calendar,  however,  was  adopted,  the  year  was  taken  as 
consisting  of  52  weeks  at  7  days  each,  or  364  days.  It  was  between  the 
years  a.d.  950  and  970  that,  in  Iceland,  it  was  noted  that  this  was  wrong, 
the  beginning  of  summer,  which  people  had  learnt  to  observe  according  to 
Roman  custom,  slowly  shifting  backwards. ^  Thornstein  Surt  found  an 
admirable  means  to  meet  this  insufficiency.  The  Roman  week  of  seven 
days  had  (as  was  remarked  above)  been  introduced  to  the  Germanics  very 
early,  and  was  in  Scandinavia  rooted  much  more  deeply  than  the  Roman 
year  of  365  days  and  12  months.  Now  the  Northern  year  so  far  in 
use  had  comprised  52  full  weeks,  and  it  seemed  to  the  people  of  Iceland 
most  desirable  not  to  interfere  with  the  division  of  the  year  through  the 
week  without  a  fraction  remaining  behind.  Thornstein  found  the  proper 
way  to  escape  the  difficulty  by  keeping  the  year  of  364  days  and  adding 
a  leap  week  every  seventh  year,  and  in  those  periods  of  seven  years  which 
contained  two  leap  years  after  the  Roman  fashion  adding  one  every  sixth 
year,  that  year  being  called  leap  year  (hlaupar).  A  tribe  which,  not  so  very 
long  before,  had  had  leap  months,  would  naturally  become  more  easily 
familiar  with  leap  weeks  than  with  leap  days,  especially  when  the  congruity 
of  52  weeks  and  a  year  was  preserved. 

In  the  Heimskringla  more  than  once  the  statement  is  repeated  that 
the  Scandinavians  had  three  great  festive  tides.  As  regards  the  respective 
frequency  of  the  festive  tides  mentioned,  it  appears  that  the  most  important 

^  Islendingab6kt  chapter  iv.;  Weinhold,  Altnordisches  Leben,  1856,  p.  379.  The  Islen- 
dingabdk  was  written  by  An  after  the  year  1134. 


1 86  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

was  the  festive  tide  at  "  winter-nights,"  i.e.,  between  October  9  and  14,  a 
fact  at  which  we  cannot  be  astonished,  because  the  very  names  of  October 
{gormdnudhr,  slagtmanad,  blotmanad)  point  to  the  fact  that  it  was  identical 
with  the  great  cattle-killing  time,  and  had,  as  its  natural  basis,  an  abundance 
of  fresh  meat  unequalled  in  the  whole  course  of  the  year.  In  the  face  of 
these  facts  Weinhold  maintains :  "  Among  all  feasts  of  heathendom,  the 
Yule-festival  is  the  most  important,  it  being  the  anticipation  of  the  cele- 
bration of  the  winter  solstice,  and  being  named  by  a  name  primeval  and 
obscure.  It  was  held  in  the  winter  night  ^  (December  14),  and  originally 
(how  does  Professor  Weinhold  know  ?)  comprised  three  days.  The  preceding 
day  2  also  was  kept  holy,  being  called  hokunoit,  hook-night.^  The  principal 
offering  of  the  year  was  celebrated  at  Yule.  When  Christianity  was  intro- 
duced, the  familiarisation  of  its  customs  was  very  much  facilitated  by  the 
fact  that  its  holy  tides  were  close  to  those  of  the  heathen.  The  Yule 
festival  had  to  be  advanced  only  by  a  few  days  to  agree  with  Christmas. 
King  Hakon  Adalsteinfostri,  the  son  of  Harald  harfagrs,  fixed  by  law  at 
least  for  Norway  this  advance  by  ten  days.  Yule  bye  and  bye  received  a 
duration  of  ten  days.  In  Norway,  Yule,  in  a  wider  sense,  is  understood  to 
mean  the  time  between  December  21  and  January  13."*  From  this  passage 
it  appears  that  Professor  Weinhold,  when  he  wrote  it,  did  not  remember  that 
the  Gothic  word  liuleis  and  Anglo-Saxon  Geola  do  not  mean  single  days, 
but  three-score-day  tides  in  winter  time.  The  same  term  {Jot)  must  at  one 
time  have  meant  in  Scandinavia  the  time  from  December  14  to  February  12. 
For  we  know  that  the  Scandinavian  year  began  at  October  14;  and  if  we 
will  not  make  the  year  begin  in  the  middle  of  such  a  three-score-day  tide, 
we  must  allow  one  to  pass  before  we  come  to  Yule-tide.  I  fail  to  see 
what  induces  Professor  Weinhold  to  suppose  a  festival  to  have  ever  been 


^  In  reality  at  vetrndttum  refers  to  the  time  about  October  14. 

2  Weinhold  apparently  meant  the  eve  of  December  14. 

'Other  explanations  given  by  Weinhold  are  hoggundtt,  hewing-night  (from  hoggva,  to 
hew),  offering-night  (a  term,  perhaps,  identical  with  English  hog-maney,  December  31); 
kaukan6lt,  hawk-night.     I  should  rather  be  inclined  to  derive  the  word  from  hog,  swine. 

••Page  380. 


THE  SCANDINAVIAN  YEAR  187 

celebrated  on  December  14.  It  is  in  no  way  apparent  from  his  text  why 
the  Scandinavians  did  not  prefer  to  celebrate  the  winter  solstice  at  its  proper 
date,  viz.,  December  17  (in  901  a.d.),  but  are  alleged  to  have  celebrated  an 
"anticipation"  of  it  on  December  14.  Assuming  there  had  ever  been  a 
festival  on  December  14,  where  is  the  evidence  that  that  festival  was  an 
"anticipation"  of  the  solstice?  His  reference  to  Olafsaga  Tryggvasonar, 
chap,  xxi.,  and  Hdkojiarsaga  godha^  chap,  xv.,  of  the  Heimskringla  shows  how 
that  strange  confusion  was  created.  Professor  Weinhold  simply  misunderstood 
the  text  of  the  Heimskringla.  King  Hakon  did  not  move  forward  a  festival 
to  fix  it  on  December  25 ;  he  moved  one  back.  So  the  festival,  the  date 
of  which  he  shifted,  was  not  celebrated  at  all  in  the  middle  of  December, 
but  a  considerable  time  after  the  date  of  Christian  Christmas.  It  is 
not  without  reason  that  modern  Norway  counts  Yule  till  January  13.  Whilst 
the  three-score-day  tide  Jbl  extended  from  December  14  to  February  14, 
the  thirty-day  period  Jbl^  which  sprang  out  of  the  former,  lasted  from 
December  14  to  January  13. 

Professor  Weinhold  is  of  opinion  that  the  two  feasts  at  the  beginning 
and  at  the  end  of  winter  were  of  less  importance  than  the  Jbl  festival^ — 
the  harvest  festival  til  drs,  and  the  spring  festival  of  spring  and  victory.^ 
As  regards  his  saying  that  summer  was  without  any  more  important 
celebration,  it  is  entirely  erroneous,  few  things  being  vouched  so  well 
as  the  feast  al  sumri  (between  June  9  and  14),  which  he,  forgetting  all 
about  the  Scandinavian  climate,  seems  to  assume  to  have  been  celebrated 
in  March  or  April.  Whilst  during  the  Vikings'  time  of  Norway  it  seems 
to  have  fallen  somewhat  into  the  background,  it  was  preserved  in  Iceland 
in  the  shape  of  an  Allthing  till  a  very  late  time,^  so  that,  in  reality,  it  is 
the  great  Thing  of  Iceland  in  the  time  when  history  sets  in.     Now,  Weinhold 

himself  says :  "  The  Scandinavian  year  began  with  the  winter ;  in  historical 

♦ 

^Page  380. 

^The  passages  Olafsaga  helga,  chap,  civ.,  "hit  thridhja  at  sumri,  tha  fagna  their  sumari," 
etc.,  and  Ynglingasaga,  chap,  viii.,  "til  sigrs,"  etc.,  point  in  the  very  opposite  direction. 

*  The  sketch  of  the  calendar  of  the  Icelandic  summer,  according  to  the  rules  laid  down 
in  999,  given  by  Dahlmann,  Geschichte  von  Daenemark,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  227-231,  shows  the 
same  lack  in  historical  insight. 


1 88  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

times  the  beginning  of  winter  was  fixed  on  October  14."^  It  apparently 
never  occurred  to  him  that  June  9  to  14  and  October  9  to  14  are  distant 
exactly  a  third  of  a  year,  or  a  long  hundred  of  days,  so  that,  if  a  tri-partition 
is  to  be  assumed  for  the  Scandinavian  year  as  for  the  Western  Germanic, 
the  third  term  must  have  fallen  in  the  middle  of  February ;  whilst  the  dual 
division  line  went  from  October  9  to  14  to  April  9  to  14,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  superseded  the  tri-partition,  only  very  faint  recollections  of  it  being 
preserved. 

^  Weinhold,  Deutsche  Monatnamen,  p.  22. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SCANDINAVIAN  OFFERING  TIDES. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  dual  division  and  the  tri-partition  of  the 
Scandinavian  year,  which  are  found  alongside  each  other,  are  in  the  same 
way  based  upon  an  older  partition  of  the  year  into  six  Aryan  tides  as 
among  the  Western  Germanics,  the  six  tides  allowing  a  combination  of 
two  complexes  of  three  tides,  as  well  as  of  three  complexes  of  two  tides, 
though  much  less  decisive  traces  of  three-score-day  tides  are  found  in 
Scandinavia  than  in  Germany  and  England.  But  whilst  the  fact  that  at  one 
time  there  had  been  three  seasons  was  remembered  well  in  the  Scandinavia 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  three  terms  which  divided  them  were  no 
more  remembered  exactly,  so  that  a  number  of  mutually  contradictory 
statements  were  made  about  them. 

In  the  time  when  King  Odin  ruled  on  earth,  Snorri  Sturluson  tells  us 
about  1230  in  the  Heimskringla  that  "all  over  Sweden  men  paid  Odin  scat, 
to.  wit  a  penny  for  every  head,  but  he  was  bound  to  ward  their  land  from 
war,  and  to  sacrifice  for  them  for  a  good  year  : "  "  Folk  were  to  hold  sacrifice 
against  the  coming  of  winter,  for  a  good  year,  in  midwinter  for  the  growth 
of  the  earth,  and  a  third  in  the  summer  that  was  an  offering  for  gain  and 
victory."  ^ 

'^Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  20  (^Saga  Library,  ed.  by  Morris  and  Magmisson,  Vol.  III.), 
Ynglingasaga,  chap.  viii.  :  "  Tha  skylldi  biota  f  moti  vetri  til  ars,  enn  at  midhjum  vetri 
biota  til  grodhrar  ;  hit  thridhja  at  sumri,  that  var  sigablot.  Um  alia  Svithiod  gulldu  menn 
Odni  skattpenning  fyrir  nef  hvert ;  enn  hann  skylldi  veria  land  theirra  fyrir  lifridi,  oc  bl6ta 
theim  til  ixs,"  which  the  Latin  translation  which  is  added,  paraphrases  this  way;  "Sacrificia 


I90  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

When  Snorri,  later  in  the  Heimskringla,  in  the  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy 
(loi 2-1030),  again  touches  on  that  point,  he  gives  a  still  fuller  account, 
thus :  "  Later  on  in  the  winter,  the  king  (Olaf  the  Holy)  was  told  that  the 
Up-Thrandheimers  were  gathered  together  in  multitudes  at  Mere,  and  that 
great  blood-offerings  had  been  there  at  midwinter ;  and  that  there  they  had 
made  blood-offerings  for  peace  and  a  good  winter  season.  And  when  the 
king  deemed  he  knew  for  sure  the  truth  of  this,  he  sent  men  and  messages 
up  into  Thrandheim,  and  summoned  the  bonders  down  to  the  town,  still 
naming  by  name  such  men  as  he  deemed  the  wisest  among  them.  So 
now  the  bonders  had  a  parley  and  talked  over  this  message  between  them ; 
and  they  were  all  the  least  willing  to  go  this  journey,  who  had  fared  the 
winter  before.  But  at  the  prayer  of  all  the  bonders  Olvir  undertook  the 
journey.  And  when  he  came  down  to  the  town,  he  went  straightway  to 
see  the  king,  and  then  fell  to  talk.  The  king  laid  it  on  hand  to  the 
bonders  that  they  had  had  a  midwinter  blood-offering.  Olvir  answered 
and  said  that  the  bonders  were  sackless  of  that  guilt.  *We  had,'  said  he, 
'Yule-biddings  and  drink-bouts  far  and  wide  about  the  countrysides.  The 
bonders  are  not  minded  so  to  pinch  them  in  their  cheer  for  the  Yule-feast, 
as  that  a  good  deal  be  not  left  over ;  and  this  it  was,  lord,  that  men  were 
a-drinking  of  long  after.  At  Mere  there  is  a  great  chief-stead  and  big 
houses,  and  mickle  dwelling  round  about,  and  there  folk  deem  it  good 
glee  to  drink  together  a  many.'  The  king  answered  little,  and  was  rather 
cross-grained,  deeming  that  he  wotted  that  other  things  were  truer  than 
that  which  was  now  set  forth.  The  king  bade  the  bonders  go  back. 
'But  yet,'  says  he,  'I  shall  get  to  know  the  truth,  to  wit,  that  ye  hide  the 
matter  and  do  not  face  it ;  but  however  things  have  gone  hitherto,  do  no 
such  things  again.'  So  the  bonders  fared  home  again,  and  told  of  their 
journey  that   it   had  been  none  of  the  smoothest,   and  that  the  king  was 

prima  sub  hiemem  (jussit  Othinus)  institui,  pro  felicis  anni  adventu ;  his  proxima,  media  in 
hieme,  pro  annonae  felicitate  et  ubere  glebae ;  tertia,  sub  aestatem,  pro  victoria  obtinenda. 
Per  totam  Sueciam,  quodvis  caput  nummo  censebatur,  qui  Othino  solveretur,  ut  omnem 
hostilem  vim  ingruentem  armis  propulsaret,  sacrificiaque  pro  annonae  annique  felicitate 
curaret"  {Heimskringla  af  Snorra  Sturlusyni,  Historia  Kegum  Norwegicortim  conscripta 
a  Snorrio  Sturlae  filio,  Ha%Tiiae,   1777,    Ynglingasaga,  i.,  13). 


SCANDINAVIAN  OFFERING  TIDES  191 

something  wroth."  ^  The  truth  about  the  story  is  told  to  the  king  by 
Thorald:^  "This  is  the  truth  to  tell,  king,  if  I  am  to  tell  things  as  they 
are,  that  throughout  Upper  Thrandheim,  wellnigh  all  the  folk  are  all-heathen 
in  their  faith,  though  some  men  be  there  who  are  christened.  Now  it  is 
their  wont  to  have  a  blood-offering  in  autumn  to  welcome  the  winter,  and 
another  at  midwinter,  and  the  third  at  summer  for  the  welcoming  of  summer.^ 
These  are  the  ways  of  the  Isle  folk,  the  Sparebiders,  the  Verdale-folk,  and 
the  Skaun-folk.  There  are  twelve  men  who  take  upon  themselves  to  carry 
out  the  blood-feasts ;  and  now  next  spring  it  is  Olvir's  turn  to  uphold 
the  feast,  and  now  he  is  in  much  ado  at  Mere,  and  thither  have  been 
brought  all  the  goods  which  are  needed  for  the  feast."  Olaf,  consequently 
sailing  there,  hindered  the  festival  by  means  of  force,  slaying  Olvir  and 
many  others,  taking  other  men's  goods  and  fining  the  rest.  Another 
account  is  the  following:*  "But  at  home  at  his  house  Sigurd  was  in  no 
way  a  man  of  lesser  state.  While  heathendom  was,  he  was  wont  to  have 
three  blood-offerings  every  year,  one  at  winter-nights,  another  at  midwinter, 
the  third  against  [should  be  t'n]  summer.^  And  when  he  took  christening, 
he  held  the  same  wont  in  the  matter  of  the  feasts.  In  autumn,  then,  he 
had  mickle  bidding  of  friends,  and  in  winter  a  Yule-bidding,  and  bade  yet 
again  many  men  to  him ;  and  a  third  feast  he  had  at  Easter,  and  had  then 
also  a  multitude.  And  to  this  wont  he  held  as  long  as  he  lived.  Sigurd 
died  of  sickness.  Then  was  Asbiorn  of  eighteen  winters.  He  took  the 
heritage  after  his  father;  and  he  too  held  to  the  old  wont,  and  had 
three  feasts  every  year,  even  as  his  father  had  had.  Now  it  was  but  a 
short  while  after  Asbiorn  took  the  heritage  of  his  father,  that  the  year's 
increase  took  to  worsening,  and  the  sowings  of  folk  failed.     But  Asbiorn 


^Sa£a  Library,  by  Morris  and  Magniissen,  Vol.  IV.  ;  Heimskringla,  Vol.  II.,  p.  194, 
The  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  cxiv. 

*Chap.  cxv.,  p.   196. 

^  "  En  that  er  sidhr  theirra  at  hafa  blot  &  haustum  ok  fagna  thd  vetri,  annat  blot  hafa 
their  at  midhjum  vetri,  en  hit  thridhja  at  sumri,  tha  fagna  their  sumari." 

*Ibid.,  chap,  cxxiii.,  p.  214. 

'  *'  Sigurdhr  var  vanr,  at  hafa  threnn  blot  hvern  vetr,  eitt  at  vetmottum,  en  annat  at 
midhjum  vetri,  thridhja  at  sumri," 


ig2 


YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 


held  to  the  same  wont  as  to  his  feasts,  and  in  good  stead  it  stood  him 
then,  that  there  was  old  corn  and  other  old  stores  that  were  needed. 
But  when  this  season  wore  and  the  next  came  round,  the  corn  was  no 
whit  better  than  it  had  been  afore.  Then  would  Sigrid  have  the  feasts  done 
away  with,  some  or  all  of  them.  But  this  Asbiorn  would  not  have ;  so  in 
harvest-time  he  went  to  see  his  friends,  and  bought  corn  whereso  he 
might,  and  got  it  as  gift  from  some.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  year, 
that  he  upheld  all  his  feasts."  When,  in  summer,  he  went  aboard  his  ship 
and  got  corn  sold  to  him  in  the  south,  he  was  robbed  of  it  by  Thorir, 
who,  however,  then  invited  him  to  the  Yule-feast,  with  his  mother  and 
such  of  their  men  as  they  would  take  with  them.  But  Asbiorn  refused, 
and  when  Thorir  after  that  slandered  him,  slew  him  before  King 
Olaf's   eyes. 

These  three  annual  offerings  point  clearly  to  the  old  tri-partition  of  the 
Germanic  year;  and,  being  in  contradiction  to  the  quartering  of  the  year 
according  to  Roman  custom,  which  was  prevalent  in  Snorri's  own  time, 
may  well  be  assumed  to  be  historical  truth,  although  every  remark  made 
by  a  Christian  writer  of  the  thirteenth  century  about  the  state  of  things 
four  hundred  years  before  that  time,  will  naturally  be  liable  to  much  doubt. 
A  very  critical  attitude,  however,  has  to  be  taken  up  as  regards  the  dates 
of  these  three  festive  times  adorned  with  blood-offerings,  as  Snorri  contra- 
dicts himself  about  them  at  various  places  of  his  book.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  about  the  autumn  festival — the  feast  af  vetrnbttum,  "for  a  good  year" — 
the  feast  of  the  year's  beginning.  For  apart  from  the  fact  that  the  record 
of  such  a  festival  agrees  with  the  statement  of  Tacitus  of  the  first  century 
of  our  era,  it  has  been  pointed  out  before^  that  the  Germanics  in  olden 
times  regarded  the  preceding  night  as  part  of  a  day,  and  the  preceding 
winter  part  of  a  year's  circle,  so  that  they  must  needs  begin  their  year 
with  the  beginning  of  winter.  The  Goths  of  the  sixth  century,  too,  began 
with  November  a  new  tide  of  sixty  days,  called  Ijuleis.  Snorri's  story  is 
quite  consistent  as  regards  this  point.  About  the  offerings  "against  the 
coming  of  winter,"  we  learn  not  only  from  Snorri  himself  that  they  were 

'Compare  pp.  17,  18. 


SCANDINAVIAN   OFFERING  TIDES  193 

not  merely  brought  to  the  gods  for  "  a  good  year "  in  general,  but  also  for 
the  bettering  of  the  "  earth's  increase,"  which — ///  grbdhrar — he  mentioned 
before  as  the  peculiarity  of  the  midwinter  festival.  ^  It  was  apparently  in 
autumn  also,  when  King  Olaf  Traetelia  of  Sweden  was  offered  up  "  for  the 
plenty  of  the  year"  (640  a.d.).^  These  autumn  offerings  were  connected 
with  great  feasting.^ 


^  "  Domald  took  to  him  the  heritage  of  Visbur,  his  father,  and  ruled  the  lands ;  and  in 
his  days  there  fell  on  the  Swedes  great  hunger  and  famine.  Then  the  Swedes  set  up 
great  blood-offerings  at  Upsala :  the  first  autumn  they  offered  up  oxen,  but  none  the 
more  was  the  earth's  increase  bettered ;  the  next  autumn  they  offered  up  men,  and  the 
increase  of  the  year  was  the  same,  or  worse  it  might  be ;  but  the  third  autumn  came  the 
Swedes  flockmeal  to  Upsala,  whenas  the  sacrifices  should  be.  Then  held  the  great 
men  counsel  together,  and  were  of  one  accord  that  this  scarcity  was  because  of  Domald, 
their  king,  and  withal  that  they  should  sacrifice  him  for  the  plenty  of  the  year;  yea, 
that  they  should  set  on  him  and  slay  him,  and  redden  the  seats  of  the  gods  with  the 
blood  of  him  ;  and  even  so  they  did"  {Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  29,  Ynglingasaga,  chap,  xviii.). 
"  The  next  autumn  fared  King  Granmar  and  King  Hiorvard,  his  son-in-law,  to  guesting  in 
the  isle  called  Sili  at  their  own  manor  therein"  {Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  62,  Ynglingasaga, 
chap,  xliii.). 

*  "  Now,  King  Olaf  was  a  man  but  little  given  to  blood-offering,  and  the  Swedes  were 
ill  content  therewith,  and  deemed  that  thence  came  the  scarcity.  So  they  drew  together 
a  great  host,  and  fell  on  King  Olaf,  and  took  the  house  over  him  and  burned  him  therein, 
and  gave  him  to  Odin,  offering  him  up  for  the  plenty  of  the  year"  (Ibid,,  Vol.  I.,  p.  66, 
Ynglingasaga,  chap,  xlvii.). 

3 «'  But  when  Halfdan  was  one  winter  old,  in  the  autumn-tide  fared  King  Gudrod 
a-guesting,  and  lay  on  his  ship  in  Stifla-sound,  and  great  drinkings  there  were,  and  the 
king  was  very  merry  with  drink  "  (a.d.  784),  (Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  71,  Ynglingasaga,  chap,  liii.); 
"  King  Halfdan  went  in  the  autumn  out  to  Vingulmark ;  and  so  on  a  night  whenas  King 
Halfdan  was  a-feasting,  there  came  to  him  at  midnight  the  man,"  etc.  (Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  80, 
Stoty  of  Halfdan  the  Black,  chap.  iv.).  An  exact  description  of  the  festivities  of  these 
blood-offerings  is  given  in  the  Story  of  Hakon  the  Great,  chap.  xvi.  (Heimskringla,  Vol.  I., 
p.  165  s.) :  "  It  was  the  olden  custom  that,  when  a  blood-offering  should  be,  all  the  bonders 
should  come  to  the  place  where  was  the  Temple,  bringing  with  them  all  the  victuals  they 
had  need  of  while  the  feast  should  last ;  and  at  that  feast  should  all  men  have  ale  with 
them.  There  also  was  slain  cattle  of  every  kind,  and  horses  withal ;  and  all  the  blood 
that  came  from  them  was  called  hlaut,  but  ^/a«/-bowls  were  they  called  wherein  the  blood 
stood,  and  the  hlaut-tein  a  rod  made  in  the  fashion  of  a  sprinkler.  With  all  the  hlaut 
should  the  stalls  of  the  gods  be  reddened,  and  the  walls  of  the  temple  within  and  without, 
and  the  men-folk  also  besprinkled  ;  but  the  flesh  was  to  be  sodden  for  the  feasting  of  men. 
Fires  were  to  be  made  in  the  midst  of  the  floor  of  the  temple,   with  caldrons  thereover, 

N 


194  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS, 

All  through  the  Ynglingasaga,  which  stands  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Heimskringla,  and  tells  the  story  of  the  oldest  kings  of  Norway  up  to 
A.D.  825,  the  great  festivities  and  banquets  are  held  in  autumn,  and  are 
frequently  used  by  some  enemy  as  opportunities  to  slay  the  men  when 
drunk,  and  burn  their  houses.^  Their  date  was  at  vetrnottum,  at  the  winter- 
nights,  i.e.,  at  the  beginning  of  winter,  or  October  9  to  14.^  Up  to  the  year 
840  the  autumn  festival  stands  first  among  the  three  annual  festive  tides, 
and,  while  frequent  reference  is  made  to  it,  there  is  not  a  single  mention 
of  a  Yule-feast  up  to  that  year.  Then  for  some  time,  until,  indeed,  about 
A.D.  1000,  both  are  mentioned  with  about  equal  frequency;  whilst  after 
that  date  the  importance  of  the  Yule-feast  grows  as  rapidly  as  the  autumn 
festivity  decays,  and  finally  is  merged  entirely  in  a  simple  Christian  St. 
Michaelmas.  If  even  Eugen  Mogk,  as  late  as  1891,  calls  the  Yule  festival 
"undoubtedly  the  highest  festival  of  our  ancestors,"^  this  can,  among  the 


and  the  health-cups  should  be  borne  over  the  fire.  But  he  who  made  the  feast,  and  was 
the  lord  thereof,  should  sign  the  cups  and  all  the  meat ;  and  first  should  be  drunken 
Odin's  cup  for  the  victory  and  dominion  of  the  king,  and  then  the  cup  of  Niord  and  the 
cup  of  Frey  for  plentiful  seasons  and  peace.  Thereafter  were  many  men  wont  to  drink 
the  Bragi-cup ;  and  men  drank  also  a  cup  to  their  kinsmen  dead  who  had  been  noble, 
and  that  was  called  the  cup  of  Memory.  Now,  Earl  Sigurd  was  the  most  bounteous 
of  men,  and  he  did  a  deed  that  was  great  of  fame,  whereas  he  made  great  feast  of  sacrifice 
at  Ladir,  and  alone  sustained  all  the  costs  thereof." 

^  Thus  King  Granmar  and  his  son-in-law,  King  Hiorvard,  were  slaughtered  in  the 
eighth  century.  "The  next  autumn  fared  King  Granmar  and  King  Hiorvard,  his  son-in-law, 
to  guesting  in  the  isle  called  Sili  at  their  own  manor  therein ;  and  so  while  they  were  at 
this  feasting,  thither  came  King  Ingiald  with  his  army  on  a  night,  and  took  the  house 
over  them,  and  burned  them  therein  with  all  their  folk,"  Ynglingasaga,  chap,  xliii.,  HeitJis- 
kri7igla.  Vol.  I.,  62.  Thus  King  Pudrod  was  murdered  about  784;  thus  King  Halfdan 
was  surprised  and  forced  to  flee  into  the  woods  about  830,  Ynglingasaga,  chap,  liii.,  and 
Story  of  Halfdan  the  Black,  chap.  iv.  ;  thus  Earl  Sigurd  was  surprised  during  the  autumn 
festival  at  Oglo,  fire  set  to  his  house,  and  the  stead  burned  and  the  earl  therein,  and  all 
his  folk  with  him,  about  A.D,  970,  Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  205,  Story  of  Harald 
Grey-cloak,  chap.  v. 

^  Compare  Eugen  Mogk,  Mythologie,  in  Paul's  Grttndriss  der  germanischen  Philologie, 
Strassburg,  1891,  I.,  p.   1127. 

^Mythologie,  in  Hermann  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie,  Strassburg, 
1891,  Vol.  I.,  p.   1125. 


SCANDINAVIAN   OFFERING   TIDES  195 

Scandinavians,  apply  only  to  the  time  after  a.d.  iooo.  The  autumn  was 
the  great  slaughtering  time  among  the  Scandinavians,  and  the  memory  of 
this  fact  lived  still  in  Iceland  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  ^ 
Somewhat  later  the  autumn  festival  was  even  connected  with  Martinmas, 
though  probably  under  German  influence.  A  northern  monk^  told  how, 
about  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  St.  Martin  had  appeared  to  Olaf 
Tryggvison,  King  of  Norway,  in  a  dream,  and  bade  him  give  up  drinking 
in  honour  of  the  old  gods  and  drink  in  his  honour  in  future.  This  can 
only  apply  to  the  feast  on  St.  Martin's  day,  which  even  in  Scandinavia, 
where  the  year  began  about  October  14,  seems  to  have  prevailed  in  later 
times. 

Things  are  not  quite  so  simple  with  the  Summer  Festival.  In  chapter 
viii.  of  the  Yngltngasaga,  Snorri  states  that  it  was  celebrated  in  the 
summer — at  sumri — and  in  the  story  of  Olaf  Tryggvison  (995-1000),^  it  is 
referred  to  as  "the  midsummer  feast  of  offering,"^  and  as  clearly  heathen 

^  This  is  the  date  of  the  Eyrbyggjasaga,  the  story  of  which  is  laid  about  the  year  lOCX). 
Saga  Library,  II.,  p.  173:  "So  in  the  autumn  Thorod  was  minded  to  slaughter  the 
cow,  but  when  men  went  after  her,  she  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  Thorod  sent  after 
her  often  that  autumn,  but  found  her  not,  and  men  deemed  no  otherwise  than  that  the 
cow  was  dead  or  stolen  away.  But  a  little  short  of  Yule,  early  on  a  morning  at  Karstead, 
as  the  herdsman  went  to  the  b)Te  according  to  his  wont,  he  saw  a  neat  before  the  byre- 
door,  and  knew  that  thither  was  come  the  broken-legged  cow  which  had  been  missing. 
So  he  led  the  cow  into  the  boose  and  bound  her,  and  then  told  Thorod.  Thorod  went 
to  the  byre  and  saw  the  cow,  and  laid  his  hand  on  her,  and  now  finds  that  she  is  with 
calf,  and  thinks  good  not  to  kill  her ;  and  withal  he  had  by  then  done  all  the  slaughtering 
for  his  household  whereof  need  was." 

^Odo  monachus  in  Vita  Olafi  filii  Tryggwii,  chap,  xxiv.,  according  to  Keissler, 
Aniiquitates  Septentrionales  et  Celticae,  p.  358;  Schiller,  Krduterbuch,  III.,  12;  Pfannen- 
schmid,  Germanische  Erntefate,  p.  499 :  * '  Ex  Eoo  mari  veniens  Olaus  ad  insulam 
Norvegiae  Mostur  nominatam  adplicuit.  Hie  noctu  innotuit  ipsi  S.  Martinus  episcopus 
dicens  illi :  moris  in  his  terris  esse  solet,  cum  convivia  celebrentur,  in  memoriam  Thoreri, 
Odini  et  aliorum  asarum  scyphos  evacuare.  Hunc  ut  mutes  volo  atque  in  mei  memoriam  in 
posterum  bibatur,  tua  cura  efficies.    Vetus  autem  ilia  consuetudo  ut  deponatur  conveniens  est." 

^  Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  317,  Story  of  Olaf  Tryggvison,  chap.  Ixxii. 

*  "  So  whereas  the  king  spake  softly  to  the  bonders,  their  fierce  mind  was  appeased,  and 
thereafter  all  the  talk  went  hopefully  and  peacefully,  and  at  the  last  it  was  determined  that 
the  midsummer  feast  of  offering  should  be  holden  in  at  Mere,  and  thither  should  come  all 
lords  and  mighty  bonders,  as  the  wont  was ;  and  King  Olaf  also  should  be  there." 


ig6  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

in  opposition  to  the  Christian  tendencies  of  Olaf  Tryggvison.  Although 
midwinter  meant  in  Snorri's  thirteenth  century  language  January  i, 
the  midsummer  festival  was  held  at  sumri,  i.e.,  approximately  between 
June  9  and  14.^ 

The  offering  was  made  "for  peace  and  the  plenty  of  the  year," ^  and 
Professor  Mogk  admits  that  at  that  time  of  the  year  the  great  Thing 
assemblies  were  wont  to  be  held.^  He  is  of  opinion  that  the  offering 
tides  in  June  and  October,  although  mentioned  at  various  places,  were 
comparatively  unimportant  as  compared  with  the  great  festive  tide  at 
midwinter.  This  is,  again,  in  some  degree  to  be  admitted  for  the  time 
after  1000  a.d.,  but  before  that  time  the  very  contrary  was  the  case,  as  the 
simple  enumeration  of  autumn  offerings  mentioned  in  the  early  parts  of 
the  Heimskringla  shows.*  It  is  not  strange  that  the  summer  Thing  should 
have  lost  its  old  consequence  at  a  time  when,  every  summer,  more  men 
were  abroad  on  board  their  ships,  so  that  sometimes  even  the  whole  arms- 
bearing  host  was  far  in  the  west,  and  scattered  along  the  coasts  of  the 
Baltic  and  the  German  Ocean,  up  to  the  Orkneys  and  Iceland.     It  well 


^Mogk,  Mythologie,  p.  1127,  in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie,  I.,  who 
believes  in  the  quartering  of  the  Germanic  year,  also  puts  it  in  June.  So  does  Willibald 
Leo,  in  his  notes  to  his  translation  of  the  Hovard  Isfjordingssaga,  Heilbronn,  1878,  p.  129  : 
"  1st  kurzweg  von  '  Thing '  die  Rede,  so  ist  dabei  auf  Island  gewohnlich  das  fiir  das  ganze 
Land  geltende  Allthing  gemeint,  welches  alljahrlich  einmal  in  der  elften  Woche  des  Sommers 
(Auf  Island  wurde  das  Jahr  namlich  in  Sommer  und  Winter  geteilt,  und  der  Beginn  des 
Sommers  fiel  auf  den  Donnerstag  zwischen  dem  9  und  15  April)  ungefahr  um  die  St. 
Johanniszeit  (gegen  Ende  Juni)  abgehalten  wurde  und  14  Tage  wahrte."  His  note  is 
explanatory  of  a  passage  of  the  Hovardsaga  (p.  19  of  his  translation),  which  runs : 
"Thorbjorn,  Thjodrek's  son,  rode  every  summer  with  his  folk  to  the  Thing;"  p.  20: 
"In  the  same  summer  in  which  Hovard  and  his  son  went  away,  Thorbjorn  rode  to  the 
Thing;"  p.  21  :  "Thorbjorn  rode  home  from  the  Thing  with  Gest  to  Bardastrand,  where, 
in  the  very  same  summer,  the  wedding  was  held  with  a  splendid  dinner ; "  p.  32  :  "  But  in 
summer  Thorbjorn  rode  to  the  Thing."  The  story  of  the  Hovardsaga  is  laid  in  the  tenth 
century. 

^Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  319,  Story  of  Olaf  Tryggvison,  chap.  Ixxiv. 
^Mythologie,  p.  1127. 

*  Compare  Maurer,  Bekehrung  des  norwegischen  Stammes  sum  Christentum,  MUnchen, 
1855-56,  IL,  233,  237. 


SCANDINAVIAN   OFFERING  TIDES  I97 

accords  therewith  that  the  feast,  and  the  Thing  connected  with  it,  are 
touched  comparatively  seldom  by  Snorri  and  other  writers,  although  the 
existence  of  a  midsummer  festival  is  proved  by  the  few  existing  men- 
tions of  it. 

Beside  the  Summer  Festival  or  feast  at  sumri,  i.e.^  June  9  to  14, 
there  was,  in  the  eighth  century,  a  Spring  Festival  "at  the  coming  of 
summer,"  also  containing  a  blood-offering  "for  good  peace."^ 

It  is  to  Snorri  himself  that  we  owe  the  detailed  knowledge  of  the  further 
evolution  of  that  festivity.  "  In  Sweden,"  he  tells  us  in  the  Heimskringlay 
"it  was  an  ancient  custom,  while  the  land  was  heathen,  that  the  chief 
blood-offering  should  be  at  Uppsala  in  the  month  of  Gbi  (February)  \  then 
should  be  done  blood-offering  for  peace  and  victory  to  their  king.  Thither 
folk  should  seek  from  the  whole  realm  of  Sweden,  and  there  at  the  same 
time  withal  should  be  the  Thing  of  all  the  Swedes.  A  market  and  a  fair  was 
there  also,  which  lasted  for  a  week.  But  when  Sweden  was  christened,  the 
Law-Thing  and  the  market  were  holden  there  none  the  less.  But  now, 
when  Sweden  was  all  christened,  and  the  kings  forbore  to  sit  at  Uppsala, 
the  market  was  flitted,  and  held  at  Candlemas,  and  that  has  prevailed  ever 
since,  and  now  it  is  held  for  but  three  days.  There  is  holden  the  Thing 
of  the  Swedes,  and  thither  they  seek  from  all  parts  of  the  land."^  It  is 
very  strange  that  this  Gbiblbt  should  not  have  been  recognised  as  one  of 
the  three  old  offering  tides,  but  that,  ever  since  Maurer  gave  his  opinion 
in  that  sense,  it  has  been  regarded  as  a  feast  of  second  rank.^     Professor 


'"The  next  spring  went  King  Granmar  to  Uppsala  to  the  blood-offering,  as  the  wont 
was  at  the  coming  of  summer,  for  good  peace ;  and  suchwise  the  lot  fell  to  him  thereat 
that  he  would  not  live  long  :  so  he  went  home  to  his  realm  "  {Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  62, 
Ynglingasaga,  chap.  xlii.).  This  festival  must  not  be  confused  with  the  feast  at  Hadaland 
{Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  86,  Story  of  Half  dan  the  Black,  chap,  ix.),  riding  home 
from  which  King  Halfdan  the  Black  was,  in  A.D,  863,  drowned  in  the  river  through  the 
ice  breaking  under  him,  just  as  King  Hring,  when  he  drove  with  his  queen,  Ingibiorg, 
to  a  great  guesting,  was  in  danger  of  being  drowned,  because  the  ice  of  the  lake  broke  over 
which  he  drove  (Fridhthjdfssaga,  chap.  xiii.). 

^Heimskringla,  Vol.  II.,  p.  ill.  The  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  Ixxvii. 

'Maurer,  Bekehrung  des  norwegischen  Stammes  zufit  Christentum,  Miinchen,  1855-56, 
II.,  236. 


198  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Mogk  says,  however,  rightly  enough,  that  at  this  chief-offering  at  Uppsala, 
before  all,  Freyr,  the  god  of  the  sky,  was  revered,  that  in  those  days  the 
Scandinavians  began  to  feel  the  return  of  the  sun,  and  that  this  feast 
was  probably  the  feast  of  the  sun  returning.^  When  he  continues — 
"About  the  same  time  it  is  that  up  till  to-day  the  folk  celebrate 
festivities.  Then,  at  Shrove-tide,  outside,  in  the  open  air  fires  are  lit; 
on  those  days  the  wheel  as  a  symbol  of  the  sun  plays  a  part,  not 
at  the  time  of  the  twelve  nights  "^ — he  is  quite  correct,  with  one  reserva- 
tion. The  time  when  these  customs  are  observed  is  not  Shrove-Tuesday, 
but  Mittfasten,  i.e.,  the  Sunday  Laetare,  which  is,  as  a  rule,  about  one 
month  later — about  the  tenth  of  March — although  it  varies  with  Easter 
within  a  considerable  space.  But  Mogk  is  clearly  right  in  putting 
the  Gbiblbt  beside  the  German  sun-wheel-festivities,  the  characteristic  of 
which  is  that  a  wooden  wheel  tied  round  about  with  ropes  of  straw,  and 
set  on  fire,  is  rolled  down  from  a  hill-top  to  make  the  fields  fertile.  The 
corresponding  Anglo-German  spring  festivity  is  bound  to  be  one  month 
later,  since  the  Anglo-German  winter  begins  one  month  later  than  the 
Scandinavian,  i.e.,  about  Martinmas. 

Snorri  himself  tells  us^  how  this  festive  tide,  which  was  connected  with 
a  Thing  and  a  market,  was  shifted  back  from  about  the  middle  of  February 
to  the  very  beginning  of  the  month  (February  2),  its  eve  being,  of  course, 
the  evening  of  February  i.  Thus  the  feast  came  into  almost  immediate 
touch  with  the  Germanic  three-score-day  tide  called  Jbl,  which  among 
Scandinavians  must  have  meant,  in  the  time  after  the  Roman  months  had 


1  Mogk,  Mythologie,  in  Paul's  Grundriss  der  germanischen  Philologie,  I.,  1126-27: 
"  Neben  diesem  Hauptfeste  (J 61)  wurde  ungefahr  einen  Monat  spater,  im  Februar  im  Norden 
das  Goiblot  gefeiert.  ...  In  diese  Zeit  fiel  auch  das  Hauptopfer  zu  Uppsala,  wo  namentlich 
der  Himmelsgott  Freyr  verehrt  wurde.  An  diesen  Tagen  beginnen  die  Scandinavier  cine 
Ruckkehr  der  Sonne  zu  merken.  Ich  glaube  daher,  dass  vielmehr  dieses  Fest  das  Fest  der 
wiederkehrenden  Sonne  gewesen  ist." 

'^"An  diesen  Tagen  ist  es  auch,  wo  noch  das  Volk  in  Deutschland  Feste  feiert ;  an 
ihnen,  zu  Fastnachten,  werden  draussen  im  Freien  Feuer  entziindet,  an  diesen  Tagen  spielt 
das  Wagenrad  als  Symbol  der  Sonne  eine  Rolle,  nicht  zur  Zeit  der  zwolf  Nachte." 

^ Heimskringla,  Vol.  II.,  p.  in,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  Ixxvii. 


OF  THE     "^^ 

UNIVERSITY 


SCANDINAVIAN  OFFERING  TIDES  199 

been  accepted,  December  and  January,  ending  with  January  31.  At  the 
same  time  the  middle  of  the  three-score-day  tide  Jbl  received  a  significance 
it  had  never  possessed  before.  While,  formerly,  the  year  had  begun  at 
vetrnbttum,  or  between  October  9  and  14,  the  beginning  of  the  year  was 
now  shifted  over  to  mid;/*?/,  i.e.,  January  i. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


SCANDINAVIAN    YULE. 


The  Autumn  Festival,  held  between  October  9  and  14;  the  Spring  Festival, 
celebrated  between  February  9  and  14;  and  the  Summer  Festival,  kept 
between  June  9  and  14,  are  without  doubt,  according  to  Snorri's  own 
report,  the  three  great  offering  tides  appearing  up  to  the  beginning  of  the 
ninth  century.  Even  the  dates  of  them  can  be  fixed  very  exactly.  It  is 
true  Eugen  Mogk  rejects  the  assumption  of  fixed  Germanic  festive  days 
altogether,  and  is  of  opinion  that  there  existed  only  festive  tides,  which 
were  not  dependent  on  the  position  of  the  sun,  but  rather  on  the  in- 
fluence of  the  sun  upon  the  earth,  i.e.,  on  the  fundamental  condition  of 
economic  existence ;  '^  and,  of  course,  in  olden  times  the  fixing  of  these 
festive  tides  may  have  been  a  little  different  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  On  the  other  hand,  the  division  of  the  year  into  six  three-score-day 
tides  was  taken  over  by  the  Germanics  in  prehistoric  times.  It  is 
tantamount  to  a  counting  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  days,  or  perhaps 
even  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  days,  and  nobody  will  deny  that  a 
tribe  which  counts  the  days  of  the  year  according  to  an  established 
standard  is  absolutely  in  a  position  to  fix  its  festive  tides  very  exactly. 
It  is  no  doubt  strange  that  Snorri,  in  his  general  remark  on  Scandinavian 

^  He  says :  "  Sun  and  day  were,  in  the  minds  of  our  ancestors,  things  thoroughly 
different  from  each  other.  The  Germanics  cared  little  for  the  increasing  of  days.  It 
was  only  when  they  noticed  that  the  days  grew  warmer  through  the  resplendent  star  of 
heaven  that  they  felt  the  sun  drawing  nearer  to  them."  Paul's  Grundriss  der  ger- 
manischen  Philologie,  Strassburg,   1891,  I.,  p.   1126. 


SCANDINAVIAN  YULE 


261 


festive  tides  in  chapter  viii.  of  the  Ynglifigasaga,  does  not  mention  these 
three,  but  only  two  of  them,  leaving  out  the  Spring  Festival,  and  mentioning 
instead  a  feast  between  January  9  and   14,     This  is  the  more  strange,  as 


Roman  Autumn 
Equinox. 

October  i. 


April  t. 

Roman  Spring 
Equinox. 


they  fulfil  all  requirements  of  the  three  old  Germanic  beginnings  of  the 
single  seasons,  being  each  distant  from  the  others  by  four  months  or  two 
three-score-day  tides.  For  the  very  same  reason  it  is  not  well  possible 
to  assail  Snorri's  statement  when  he  maintains  that  the  old  Scandinavians 
had    three    great    offering    tides    only.      He    being    not    only    acquainted 


202  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

with  and  brought  up  in  the  Christian  saints'  days,  but  being  also  on 
close  terms  with  the  Roman  calendar,  which  at  his  time  was  the  calendar 
of  his  Icelandic  compatriots,  it  would  have  been  only  natural  for  him  to  look 
at  all  questions  connected  with  the  division  of  the  year  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  quartering  of  the  year  according  to  solstices  and  equinoxes.  ^ 
Special  weight  has  therefore  to  be  attached  to  all  statements  of  his  in  which 
his  mind  appears  to  have  been  free  from  any  prejudice  to  the  effect 
that  conditions  prevailing  in  his  own  time  had  obtained  also  in  the  far 
away  past  of  his  ancestors.  Records  of  single  outstanding  events  may 
live  unchanged  for  centuries  in  the  memory  of  a  nation,  but  as  regards 
customs  and  general  conditions  of  life — such  things  as  are  gone  through 
year  by  year — every  older  status  is  almost  completely  wiped  out  of  memory 
as  soon  as  it  disappears  from  reality.  We  ourselves  find  it  difficult  to 
imagine  that  our  own  ancestors,  a  hundred  years  ago,  should  have  lived 
under  conditions  and  forms  of  life  different  from  ours,  and  historians  have 
always  been  only  too  much  inclined  to  assume  that  the  state  of  things 
recorded  by  the  oldest  people  living  held  good  also  for  two  centuries 
prior  to  their  own  time. 

Snorri  has  no  knowledge  of  the  fact  that,  four  hundred  years  previous 
to  his  own  lifetime,  Jbl  denoted  a  three-score-day  tide  extending  approximately 
over  December  and  January;  and  although  for  him  the  word  Jbl  never 
means  a  single  day,  but  in  various  places  a  shorter  or  longer  festive  period, 
he  apparently  takes  the  festival  about  midwinter  time  for  an  old  Germanic 
festival.  On  the  other  hand,  a  writer  of  the  first  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century  cannot  be  regarded  as  an  authority  on  the  conditions  of  the 
sixth  or  eighth  century,  more  especially  if  his  various  reports  are  absolutely 
irreconcilable.  And  it  apparently  escaped  his  notice  that,  though  he  thought 
that  the  festival  about  the  middle  of  January  was  of  ancient  growth,  he 
was  himself  unable  to  give  a  historical  instance  of  a  Yule  celebration 
previous    to   840,  while   his   records   of  autumn   festivals,    spring   festivals, 

^  King  Olaf  fell  on  Wednesday  the  fourth  of  the  Calends  of  August  (Heimskringla, 
Vol.  II.,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy);  on  the  Nones  of  January  {Ibid.,  p.  157,  The  Story  of 
Harald  the  Hard-redy,  chap.  Ixxix.);  on  the  ninth  of  the  Calends  of  January  {Ibid.,  p. 
227,    The  Story  of  Sigurd  Jerusalemfarer,  chap,  xxiii.). 


SCANDINAVIAN  YULE 


203 


and  summer  festivals  were  considerably  older.  Indeed,  the  spring  festival 
had  completely  disappeared  from  his  story  when  the  Yule  festival  made 
its  debut.  These,  however,  are  serious  facts,  and  the  only  conclusion 
to  be  drawn  from  them  is  that,  in  his  time,  the  old  spring  festival  was 
merely  preserved  in  a  market  in  Sweden,  having  everywhere  else  been 
completely  absorbed  in  the  Yule  festival  which  had  arisen  under  the 
influence  of  the  Roman  calendar  and  won  such  an  importance  that  it 
was  regarded  as  genuine  and  old. 

It  is  under  King  Granmar,  in  the  eighth  century,^  that  the  last  historical 
Gbiblbt  is  mentioned  by  Snorri  to  have  been  held,  and  it  is  about  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century  that,  for  the  first  time,  a  Yule-tide  is  spoken 
of  by  him  as  having  been  celebrated  by  guesting.  Is  it  too  daring  a 
supposition  that,  within  the  century  which  had  elapsed  between  the  two 
events,  Jblblbt  had  taken  the  place  of  Gbiblbt}  And  could  Gbiblbt,  which 
had  its  name  from  the  month  of  Gbi,  have  received  with  equal  ease  another 
name  than  Jblblbt,  according  to  the  month  in  which  it  was  now  held  ?  ^  In 
the  tenth  century  the  Yule-feast  extended  over  some  days,'  and  its  celebration 
began  between  January  9  and  14. 

It  was  Hakon  the  Good,  King  of  Norway  from  940  to  963,  who  changed, 
or  tried  to  change,  this  state  of  affairs,  ordering  that  the  holy  tide  should 
in  future  begin  with  December  25  after  the  Christian  fashion,  and  be  kept 
in  a  festive  and  proper  way.      Snorri's   report  on  this   important   episode 


^ Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  62,    Ynglingasaga,  chap.  xlii. 

^  The  first  instance  of  a  particular  JSl  occurring  in  the  Heimskringla  is  Vol.  I. ,  p.  82, 
Story  oj  Half  dan  the  Black,  chap,  v.:  "But  at  Yule-tide  King  Halfdan  (840-863)  was 
guesting  in  Heathmark,  and  had  heard  all  these  tidings."  It  is  almost  immediately 
followed  by  another  which  is  connected  with  a  story  bearing  a  clearly  legendary  character, 
and  telling  how  all  the  victuals  vanished  from  the  festive  table  {^Heimskringla,  Vol.  I., 
p.  85,  Story  of  Halfdan  the  Black,  chap.  viii.).  The  next  Yule  story  is  of  the  same  kind 
{^Heimskringla.  Vol.  I.,  p.  120,  Story  of  Harald  Hairfair,  chap,  xxv.,  about  a.d.  880).  It 
is,  in  fact,  the  German  fairy  tale  of  Schneewittchen,  i.e..  Snow-white. 

^King  Hakon  (940-963)  held  his  Yule-feast  at  Thrandheim,  which  feast  Earl  Sigurd 
arrayed  for  him  at  Ladir.  There,  on  the  first  night  of  Yule,  Bergliot,  the  earl's  wife, 
brought  forth  a  man-child  ;  and  the  next  day  King  Hakon  sprinkled  the  lad  with  water,  etc. 
(Ibid.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  161,  Story  of  Hakon  the  Good,  chap  xii.). 


2o4  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

runs  thus :  '*  King  Hakon  was  a  well-christened  man  when  he  came  to 
Norway;  but  whereas  all  the  land  was  heathen,  and  folk  much  given  to 
sacrificing,  and  many  great  men  in  the  land,  and  that  he  deemed  he  lacked 
men  sorely  and  the  love  of  all  folk,  he  took  such  rede  that  he  fared 
privily  with  his  Christian  faith.  Sunday  he  held  and  the  Friday  fast,  and 
he  made  a  law  that  Yule  should  be  holden  the  same  time  as  Christian 
men  hold  it,  and  that  every  man  at  that  tide  should  brew  a  meal  of  malt 
or  pay  money  else,  and  keep  holy  tide  while  Yule  lasted.  But  aforetime 
was  Yule  holden  on  hoku  night,  that  is  to  say,  midwinter  night,  and  Yule 
was  holden  for  three  nights."^ 

^  Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  163,  Siory  of  Hakon  the  Good,  chap.  xv.  :  "  Hann  setti  that 
i  Ibgum  at  hefja  jolahald  thann  ti'ma  sem  kristnir  menn,  ok  skyldi  tha  hverr  madhr  eiga 
mselis  51,  en  gjalda  fe  ella,  en  halda  heilagt  medhan  jolin  ynnist  En  adr  var  jolahald  hafit 
hokunott,  that  var  midhsvetrar  nott,  ok  haldin  thriggja  natta  jol,"  Heimskringla  eller 
Norges  Kongesagaer  af  Snorre  Sturlasson,  ed.  by  C.  R.  Unger,  Christiania,  1868,  p.  92. 
Morris  and  Magnusson  translate  hokunott  as  Hogmanay,  i.e.,  December  31  ;  but  however 
well  that  would  suit  my  own  theory  about  the  evolution  of  the  Scandinavian  year,  in 
illustrating  a  stage  at  which,  according  to  Roman  Calends  custom,  Yule  was  kept  on 
January  i,  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  reason  to  identify  hokunott  with  Hogmanay ;  and 
the  more  caution  is  requisite  since  the  etymology  of  both  words  is  entirely  uncertain. 
Hogmanay  or  Hogmenay  was  a  Northumbrian  name  of  December  (John  Jamieson,  An 
Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Scottish  Language,  under  "Hogmanay"),  while  in  Scotland  it 
has  denoted,  at  least  since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  last  day  of  that 
month  only.  Lambe  (Notes  to  the  Battle  of  Floddon,  p.  67)  derives  it  from  ^710  ii.rivi\, 
holy  month,  the  common  Northumbrian  form  being  at  his  time  Hagmana,  but  he  gives  no 
proof  that  December  was  ever  called  fiyta  ii.i\vr\  in  Scotland,  If,  among  the  Scandinavian 
nations,  a  name  slaughter-month  for  December  could  be  shown  to  have  existed,  it  would 
not  be  impossible  to  assume  for  the  north  country  a  name  consisting  of  hoggva,  to  hew 
(hogg  is  stroke),  and  month.  But  an  explanation  would  have  to  be  given  why  the  word 
was  not  formed  of  A.  S.  hedvan,  to  hew,  and  mondth.  For  although  there  exists  a  word 
^yg^i  h-^gi  hay,  the  A.  S.  verb  has  no  more  a  g.  Nevertheless  hedvan  and  hoggva  must  have 
been  felt  to  be  the  same  word.  There  remain  two  other  ijossibilities  of  derivation,  namely, 
from  hag,  witch,  and  from  hog,  pig.  And  until  it  has  been  shown  what  witches  have  to 
do  with  December,  I  should  rather  be  inclined  to  take  hogmanay  as  pig-month,  i.e.,  month 
in  which  pigs  were  killed.  It  is  strange  that  the  ultimate  bearing  of  the  name  would 
thus  be  almost  identical  with  what  it  would  have  been  if  it  consisted  of  hoggva  and  month. 
But  apart  from  all  that,  I  do  not  see  how,  among  a  people  which  counts  the  winter  from 
October  9  to  14  to  April  9  to  14,  as  the  Scandinavians  always  did  in  historical  times, 
midwinter's  night  can  mean  anything  but  a  night  between  January  9  and  14.  When  Eric 
Gustave  Geijer,  in  his  History  of  the  Swedes  (translated  by  Turner,  London,  without  year. 


SCANDINAVIAN  YULE  205 

However  serious  attempts  were  made  by  Hakon  the  Good  to  win  his 
folk  over  to  Christianity,  he  did  not  succeed.  An  earl  of  his  called  all 
his  bonders  together  to  a  place  called  Ladir,  and  himself  giving  all  the 
victuals  and  ale,  arranged  a  huge  blood-offering,  at  which  the  king  appeared. 
His  proposal  to  give  up  their  old  religion  and  customs  was  received  with 
undivided  disapproval,  so  that  the  king  thought  it  wisest  to  take  part  in 
the  offering  in  order  not  to  lose  his  crown  and  kingdom.  It  is  not  quite 
plain  from  the  record  given  by  Snorri  Sturluson  ^  at  which  of  the  three 
great  annual  festivals  this  was ;  but  it  is  certain  that  the  next  great  event 
connected  with  Hakon's  attempt  to  withhold  himself  from  an  all  too 
public  celebration  of  blood-offering  festivities  "took  place  in  the  autumn- 
tide  at  winter-nights,"  which  at  that  time  still  outshone  in  splendour  the 
January  festivity.      While  so  far  the  king  had   preferred  to  take  his  meal 


p.  43),  tells  this  according  to  Snorri,  he  adds  a  note  which  shows  that  that  festival,  in  his 
opinion,  was  originally  kept  in  February  (between  February  9  and  14),  then  about  Candle- 
mas, then  about  midwinter  (January  14),  then  about  January  i,  and  finally  on  December  25. 
He  only  confuses  February  9  to  14,  and  midwintersnatten.  The  time  at  the  beginning  or  about 
the  middle  of  February  can  never  have  been  called  midwinter,  but  was  simply  the  end 
of  the  third  of  the  year,  beginning  between  October  9  and  14.  Geijer's  note  is :  "  It  is 
related  of  Sigurd  Thorson,  a  rich  Norwegian,  that  he  had  the  custom,  while  heathenism 
existed,  of  keeping  three  sacrifices  every  year — one  at  the  commencement  of  winter,  the 
second  in  midwinter,  and  the  third  towards  summer.  But  after  he  had  embraced 
Christianity,  he  preserved  the  custom  of  giving  entertainments.  In  harvest  he  kept  with 
his  friends  a  harvest-home,  in  winter  a  Christmas  revel,  and  the  third  feast  he  held  at 
Easter ;  and  many  guests  were  gathered  at  his  board"  (,Saga  of  St.  Olave,  chap,  cxxiii. ).  Hacon 
the  Good  of  Norway  had  removed  the  Pagan  Yule,  formerly  observed  as  midwinter's 
night  (niidwintersnatten)^  called  also  hawk's  night  {hokettaiten),  and  kept  at  the  beginning 
of  February,  according  to  the  Harvarar  Saga,  to  the  Catholic  Christmas  (Saga  of  Haco, 
chap.  XV.).  Candlemas,  celebrated  at  the  time  of  the  old  winter  sacrifice,  is  still  called  in 
some  provinces  Little  Yule.  In  full  accordance  with  this  report  Eugen  Mogk  says  :  "There 
is  no  foundation  whatever  for  taking  ...  the  great  winter  festival,  called  Yule-festival  by 
the  Scandinavians,  for  the  feast  of  the  sun  returning  "  (in  Paul's  Grundriss  der germanischen 
Philologie,  Strassburg,  1891,  I.,  p.  1126).  In  conformity  with  that.  Professor  Kaufmann  fixed 
its  original  date  at  the  end  of  January,  and  Professor  Elard  Hugo  Meyer  at  the  beginning  of 
February,  but  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  help  (according  to  the  beginning  of  winter 
between  October  9  and  14  and  the  beginning  of  summer  between  April  9  and  14)  fixing  it 
at  February  9  to  14. 

^  Hfimskrtngla,  Vol.   I.,  p.   i66-i68,  Stor)/  0*^  Hakon  the  Good,  chap.  xvii. 


2o6  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

privately  on  such  occasions,  he  was  now  compelled  to  take  it  publicly 
in  the  hall  and  to  make  many  compromises,  however  much  he  might 
grudge  them.  Snorri  tells  it  thus:  "In  the  autumn-tide  at  winter-nights 
was  there  a  blood-offering  held  at  Ladir,  and  the  king  went  thereto. 
Heretofore  he  had  ever  been  wont,  if  he  were  abiding  at  any  place  where 
was  a  feast  of  blood-offering  going  on,  to  eat  his  meat  in  a  little  house 
with  but  few  folk,  but  now  the  bonders  murmured  at  it,  that  he  sat  not 
in  his  own  high-seat,  where  the  feast  of  men  was  greatest;  and  the  earl 
said  to  the  king  that  so  he  would  not  do  as  now.  So  it  was  therefore 
that  the  king  sat  in  his  high-seat.  But  when  the  first  cup  was  poured, 
then  spake  Earl  Sigurd  thereover,  and  signed  the  cup  to  Odin,  and  drank 
off  the  horn  to  the  king.  Then  the  king  took  it,  and  made  the  sign  of 
the  cross  thereover ;  and  Karl  of  Griting  spake  and  said :  '  Why  doeth 
the  king  thus,  will  he  not  do  worship  ? '  Earl  Sigurd  answers :  '  The 
king  doth  as  they  all  do  who  trow  in  their  own  might  and  main,  and  he 
signeth  the  cup  to  Thor.  For  he  made  the  sign  of  the  hammer  over  it 
before  he  drank.'  So  all  was  quiet  that  eve.  But  on  the  morrow,  when 
men  went  to  table,  the  bonders  thronged  the  king,  bidding  him  eat  horse- 
flesh, and  in  no  wise  the  king  would.  Then  they  bade  him  drink  the 
broth  thereof,  but  this  would  he  none  the  more.  Then  would  they  have 
him  eat  of  the  dripping,  but  he  would  not;  and  it  went  nigh  to  their 
falling  on  him.  Then  strove  Earl  Sigurd  to  appease  them,  and  bade 
them  lay  the  storm ;  but  the  king  he  bade  gape  over  a  kettle-bow,  whereas 
the  reek  of  seething  had  gone  up  from  the  horse-flesh,  so  that  the  kettle- 
bow  was  all  greasy.  Then  went  the  king  thereto,  and  spread  a  linen 
cloth  over  the  kettle-bow,  and  gaped  thereover,  and  then  went  back 
to  the  high-seat;  but  neither  side  was  well  pleased  thereat."^  This  was 
not  the  end  of  the  trouble  caused  by  his  Christian  belief  "The  next 
winter  was  the  Yule-feast  arranged  for  the  king  in  Mere.  But  when 
time  wore  towards  Yule,  the  eight  lords  who  had  most  dealing  in  blood- 
offerings  of  all  Thrandheim  appointed  a  meeting"  between  themselves  and 
"bound   themselves   to   this,    that   the   four    of  Outer  Thrandheim  should 

^  Heimskrinsla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  170,  Story  of  Hakon  the  Good,  chap,  xviii.   • 


SCANDINAVIAN   YULE 


207 


make  an  end  of  the  Christian  faith  in  Norway,  and  the  four  of  Inner 
Thrandheim  should  compel  the  king  to  blood-offering.  So  the  Outer 
Thrandheim  fared  in  four  ships  south  to  Mere,  and  there  slew  three 
priests,  and  burned  three  churches,  and  so  gat  them  back  again.  But 
when  King  Hakon  came  to  Mere  with  his  court  and  Earl  Sigurd,  there 
were  the  bonders  come  in  great  throngs.  The  very  first  day  of  the  feast 
the  bonders  pressed  hard  on  the  king,  bidding  him  offer,  and  threatening 
him  with  all  things  ill  if  he  would  not.  Earl  Sigurd  strove  to  make 
peace  between  them,  and  the  end  of  it  was  that  King  Hakon  ate  some 
bits  of  horse-liver,  and  drank  crossless  all  the  cups  of  memory  that  the 
bonders  poured  for  him.  But  so  soon  as  the  feast  was  ended,  the  king 
and  the  earl  went  out  to  Ladir.  Of  full  little  cheer  was  the  king,  and 
straightway  he  arrayed  him  for  departing  from  Thrandheim  with  all  his 
court,  saying  that  he  would  come  with  more  men  another  time  and  pay 
back  the  bonders  for  the  enmity  they  had  shown  him.  But  Earl  Sigurd 
prayed  the  king  not  to  hold  them  of  Thrandheim  for  his  foes  for  this; 
and  said  that  no  good  would  come  to  the  king  of  threatening  or  warring 
against  the  folk  of  his  own  land,  and  the  very  pith  of  his  realm,  as 
were  the  folk  of  Thrandheim.  But  the  king  was  so  wroth,  that  no 
speech  might  be  held  with  him.  He  departed  from  Thrandheim,  and 
went  south  to  Mere,  and  abode  there  that  winter  and  on  into  spring  j 
and  as  it  summered  he  drew  together  an  host,  and  rumour  ran  that 
he  would  fall  on  the  Thrandheimers  therewith."  ^  But  when  the  king 
learned  the  news  that  the  King  of  Denmark  had  invaded  his  country, 
he  preferred  to  lead  his  army  against  him,  and  was  supported  therein  by  Earl 
Sigurd  and  the  Thrandheimers  (about  955  a.d.).^  He  died  in  963,  his  attempts 
to  establish  Christianity  in  Norway  having  utterly  failed.  For  some  time 
to  come  the  new  belief  could  not  root  itself  in  Norway;  and  when  the  sons  of 
King  Eric  of  Denmark,  who  had  been  christened  in  England,  came  to 
Norway  and  broke  down  temples  and  abolished  the  offering  festivals, 
they  gained  only  hatred  thereby.     When   Earl   Hakon  had  hung  up  King 

^  Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.   170  f.,  Story  of  Hakon  the  Good,  chap.  xix. 
^  Ibid.,  pp.    171,  172,  chap.  xx. 


2o8  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Harald  on  a  gallows  and  subdued  all  the  land,  he  bade  restore  the 
temples  and  blood-offerings  throughout  all  his  dominions.^  And  although 
later  some  men  took  christening,  they  turned  back  to  blood-offering; 
and  even  when  King  Olaf  I.  Tryggvison  established  Christianity  by 
force  and  cruelty  in  Norway  about  998,  the  country  was  by  no  means 
Christian.^  Just  as,  some  centuries  earlier,  the  Autumn  Festival  had  been 
the  opportunity  frequently  chosen  for  surprising  the  enemy  at  feast  and 
drunk,  now    from    the    beginning   of  the   eleventh   century   the   Yule-tide 


^  Heimskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  242,  Story  of  Olaf  Tryggvison,  chap.  xvi. 

2  Under  his  reign  the  first  Easter  is  recorded  in  the  Heimskrinqla,  I.,  p.  313,  Story 
of  Olaf  Tryggvison  in  999  :  "[he]  came  at  Easter  eve  to  Ogvaldsness  in  Kormt-isle.  And 
there  was  his  Easter-feast  arrayed  for  him,"  as  well  as  the  first  Michaelmas,  I.,  p.  336, 
Story  of  Olaf  Tryggvison,  chap.  Ixxxix.  :  "And  now  was  Michaelmas  come,  and  the 
king  let  hold  high-tide,  and  sing  mass  full  gloriously ;  and  thither  went  the  Icelanders, 
and  hearken  the  fair  song,  and  the  voice  of  the  bells."  In  the  Stories  that  follow  in 
the  Heimskringla  the  names  of  Christian  festivals  get  ever  more  numerous:  "It  befell  on 
Ascension  day  that  King  Olaf  went  to  high  mass,"  Heimskringla,  II.,  p.  131, 
Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  Ixxxv.  ;  "at  Candlemas,"  Ibid.,  p.  152,  Story 
of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  xciii.  ;  "King  Olaf  had  a  great  feast  at  Easter,  and  had 
many  men  of  the  town  bidden  and  many  bonders  withal,"  Ibid.,  p.  195,  Story  of  Olaf 
the  Holy,  chap.  cxv.  ;  "After  Candlemas,"  Ibid.,  p.  221,  Story  of  King  Olaf  the  Holy, 
chap,  cxxiv.  ;  "The  king  says :  '  Is  it  not  a  guilt  unto  death,  Skialg,  if  a  man  break  the 
Easter  peace?'"  Ibid.,  p.  223,  chap.  cxxv. ;  "the  day  before  Michaelmas,"  Ibid., 
p.  325,  chap,  clxii.  ;  "On  Thomas-mass  before  Yule  in  the  very  first  dawn,"  Ibid., 
p.  354,  chap,  clxxxvi.  ;  "The  next  day  was  Michaelmas  Eve,"  Ibid.,  III.,  p.  35. 
The  Story  of  Magnus  the  Good,  chap,  xxviii.  ;  "ere  Michaelmas,"  Ibid.,  p.  50, 
chap,  xxxvi.  ;  "the  battle  was  on  the  Wednesday  next  before  Matthewmass,"  Ibid,, 
p.  168,  chap.  Ixxxviii.  ;  "about  candlemas,"  Ibid:,  p.  207,  The  Story  of  King  Magnus 
Barefoot,  chap.  ii.  ;  "the  day  before  Bartholomewmas,"  Ibid.,  p.  240,  chap.  xxvi. ;  "a  high- 
tide,  Whitsunday  to  wit,"  Ibid.,  p.  288,  chap.  xxx. ;  "one  night  after  Marymass  in  autumn," 
Ibid.,  p.  310,  chap.  xlii. ;  "on  Whitsunday,"  Ibid.,  p.  325,  Story  of  Magnus  the  Blind  and 
Harald  Gilli,  chap.  ix. ;  "and  this  was  Michaelmass,"  Ibid.,  p.  458,  Story  of  King  Magnus, 
son  of  Erling,  chap,  xviii.  ;  "when  Lenten  fast  was  wearing,"  Ibid.,  p.  467,  Story  of  King 
Magnus,  son  of  Erling,  chap.  xxv. ;  "to  Rogation-days'  Thing,"  Ibid.,  p.  467;  "on  Tuesday 
in  Rogation-days,"  Ibid.,  p.  468;  "in  the  night  before  Ascension  day,"  Ibid.,  p.  468 ;  "  The 
priest  who  sang  at  Rydiokul,  which  is  on  the  water,  bade  the  earl  and  his  to  a  feast, 
to  come  there  at  Candlemas,"  Ibid.,  p.  475,  Story  of  King  Magnus,  son  of  Erling, 
chap,  xxxii.  ;  "That  was  the  latter  Marymass,"  Ibid.,  p.  481,  Story  of  King  Magnus,  son  of 
Erling,  chap,  xxxix. 


SCANDINAVIAN  YULE 


209 


was  used  for  the  same  purpose ;  ^  while  among  friends  it  became  a  custom 
to  feast  the  first  half  of  Yule-tide  at  the  home  of  the  one  and  the 
second  half  at  the  home  of  the  other,  the  two  parts  being  called  the 
earlier  and  the  latter  Yule.  "  Thorod  was  with  another  man  at  Thorar's ; 
and  there  was  mickle  Yule-feast  and  gild  ale  drinkings.  There  were  many 
bonders  living  in  that  thorp,  and  they  all  drank  together  through  the 
Yule-tide.  Another  thorp  there  was  a  little  way  thence;  there  dwelt  a 
kinsman-in-law  of  Thorar,  a  mighty  man  and  a  wealthy.  He  had  a  son 
full  grown.  These  kinsmen-in-law  were  to  drink  half  Yule  at  each  other's, 
beginning  at  Thorar's.  The  kinsmen-in-law  drank  against  each  other,  and 
Thorod  against  the  bonder's  son.  It  was  a  champion  drinking,  and  in 
the  evening  was  mickle  masterful  talk  and  man-pairing  betwixt  the  Norway 
men  and  the  Swedes."  ^  In  the  term  "  Little  Yule,"  which  provincially 
means  Candlemas,  and  which  presupposes  a  corresponding  "Great  Yule," 
and  in  the  terms  "earlier  Yule"  and  "latter  Yule,"  there  are  contained 
reminiscences  of  a  halving  of  the  older  Yule-tide  of  three  scores  of  days, 
which  on  A.S.  ground  was  divided  into  cerra  Geola  and  ceftera  Geola,  and 
among  the  Goths  in  fruma  liuleis  and  *  aftuma  liuleis. 

The  days  of  Yule  are  counted  like  the  days  of  the  month  in  the  Roman 
calendar,  and  under  our  eyes,  as  it  were,  that  festive  tide  grows  and  grows. 


^  Heimskringla,  II.,  p.  48,  The  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy  (1012-1030),  chap,  xxxix.  : 
"  Earl  Svein  was  then  up  Thrandheim  at  Steinker,  and  let  array  there  a  Yule  feast ; 
there  was  a  cheaping-stead ; "  p.  53,  chap.  xlii.  :  "  Even  at  that  nick  of  time  came  the  host  of 
the  earl  into  the  town,  and  they  took  all  the  Yule  victuals  and  burnt  all  the  houses." 
The  same  is  evident  from  the  Eyrbyggjasaga  written  about  1250,  but  telling  a  story 
of  the  time  about  icxx)  {Saga  Library,  II.,  p.  79),  which  contains  the  following : 
"That  winter  at  Yultide  had  Thorolf  a  great  drinking,  and  put  the  drink  round  briskly 
to  his  thralls ;  and  when  they  were  drunk,  he  egged  them  on  to  go  up  to  Ulfar's-fell 
and  bum  Ulfar  his  house,  and  promised  to  give  them  there  freedom  therefore;"  p.  125: 
"Then  Steinthor  and  his  men  misdoubted  them,  that  there  would  be  going  the 
sons  of  Thorbrand  minded  for  the  Yulefeast  at  Holyfell;"  p.  147:  "in  the  winter  a 
little  before  Yule;"  p.  148:  "  Kiartan  and  Thurid  bade  their  neighbours  to  the  arvale, 
and  their  Yule  ale  was  taken  and  used  for  the  arvale." 

^  Heimskringla,  Vol.  II.,  p.  296,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  cli.  :  ".  .  .  Now 
when  mid- Yule  was  come,  Thorar  and  all  his  freedmen  with  him  went  to  his  kinsman- 
in-law,  and  there  he  was  to  drink  the  latter  Yule." 

O 


2IO  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

Snorri  informs  us  that,  so  long  as  Yule  was  held  in  January,  it  was  celebrated 
for  three  days;^  but  when  it  took  its  new  date,  for  three-quarters  of  a  century 
it  became  a  celebration  of  at  least  eight  days,  the  eighth  day  (January  i) 
being  the  day  of  giving  gifts  of  friendship,  according  to  Roman  Calends-of- 
January  custom.  Even  King  Olaf  the  Good  stuck  to  that  custom,  however 
much  stress  he  laid  on  Christian  rites.  ^  King  Olaf  was  expelled  from  his 
country  by  King  Cnut  of  Denmark,  who,  at  his  death,  was  succeeded  by 
King  Svein.  As  regards  Yule-tide,  Svein's  reign  is  remarkable  for  the  fact 
that  he  made  it  a  legal  term  at  which  duties  had  to  be  paid,  which  it 
apparently  had  not  been  until  then.^  By  this  act  a  new  step  was  taken 
towards  a  complete  overtaking  of  the  Roman  calendar,  which  made  as  quick 
and  steady  progress  as  the  doctrine,  feasts,  and  rites  of  Christianity.  Bye 
and  bye  the  Christian  customs  obtained  sway  all  over  the  land.  It  became 
the  habit  to  fast  on  Yule-eve,  and  begin  the  festivities  not  earlier  than  Yule- 
day,  as  the  25  th  of  December  was  called  in  the  twelfth  century.  Neither  was 
it  any  more  the  habit,  as  it  had  been,  to  have  concubines  on  the  night 
preceding  Yule-day.*     The  introduction  of  fasting  also  is  vouched  by  another 

1  HeifJiskringla,  Vol.  I.,  p.  163,  Story  of  Hakon  the  Good,  chap.  xv. 

2  »•  King  Olaf  had  a  great  Yule-feast,  at  which  there  was  gathered  to  him  a  many  great 
men.  On  the  seventh  day  of  Yule  it  fell  that  the  king  went  a-walking,  and  a  few  men  with 
him.  Sigvat  followed  the  king  day  and  night,  and  at  this  time  he  was  with  him.  So  they 
went  to  a  certain  house,  wherein  were  guarded  the  precious  things  of  the  king.  He  had 
then  had  great  store  arrayed,  as  his  wont  was,  and  fetched  together  his  precious  things  for 
this  sake,  to  give  gifts  of  friendship  on  the  eighth  eve  of  Yule"  (Heimskringla,  Vol.  II., 
p.  337,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  clxxii.). 

^  "  King  Svein  (1030- 1035)  brought  new  laws  into  the  land  for  many  matters,  which  were 
framed  after  the  manner  of  the  laws  of  Denmark,  but  some  mickle  harder.  ...  At  Yule 
every  man  was  to  bring  the  king  a  measure  of  malt  for  every  hearth,  and  a  thigh  of  a  three- 
winter  ox,  that  was  called  pasture-tod,  and  a  keg  of  butter  withal ;  and  every  housewife  was 
to  give  housewife's-tow,  that  is  to  say,  so  much  of  undressed  flax  as  might  be  spanned  by 
the  biggest  finger  and  the  longest"  {Heimskringla,  Vol.  II.,  p.  450,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy, 
chap,  ccliii.). 

*  Heimskringla,  III.,  p.  294,  The  Story  of  Sigurd  Jerusalem  far er,  Eystein  and  Olaf, 
chap,  xxxiii.  :  "  So  befell  on  a  time  on  Yule-eve,  as  the  king  (Sigurd  Jerusalem-farer, 
1103-1130)  sat  in  the  hall  and  the  boards  were  set,  that  the  King  said:  'Fetch  me  flesh- 
meat.'  'Lord,'  said  they,  'it  is  not  wont  in  Norway  to  eat  flesh-meat  on  Yule-eve.'  He 
answered  :  '  If  it  be  not  the  wont,  then  will  I  have  it  the  wont.'     So  they  came  and  had  in 


SCANDINAVIAN  YULE  211 

Saga.  The  Eyrbyggjasaga,  dating  from  about  1250,  tells  a  story  of  about 
the  year  1000.  Its  Yule  is  absolutely  the  Christian  Christmas,  preceded 
by  an  Advent-fast  or  Yule-fast,^  and  celebrated  by  a  great  drinking.^  After 
another  century  people  thought  it  no  longer  permissible  to  fight  on  Yule-day, 
and  it  became  a  specially  memorable  fact,  when,  in  the  case  of  necessary 
work,  three  days  only  were  kept  free  from  labour,  though  there  were  cases  in 
which  a  fight  would  arise  in  a  Yule  company,  and  some  men  were  killed.^ 
The  Yule-tide  grew  still  further,  so  that  in  the  twelfth  century  a  celebration 
of  fourteen  days  was  reached.*  From  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century 
the  occasions  on  which  Yule  is  mentioned  in  the  Saga  literature  become 
ever   more   frequent.^     So   the  Bandamannasaga,  which  has  its   origin   no 

porpoise.  The  king  stuck  his  knife  into  it,  but  took  not  thereof.  Then  said  the  king : 
'Fetch  me  a  woman  into  the  hall.'  They  came  thither  and  had  a  woman  with  them,  and 
she  was  coifed  wide  and  side.  The  king  laid  his  hand  to  her  head,  and  looked  on  her, 
and  said :  'An  ill-favoured  woman  is  this,  yet  not  so  that  one  may  not  endure  her.'  Then 
he  looked  at  her  hand  and  said  :  'An  ungoodly  hand  and  ill- waxen,  yet  one  must  endure  it.' 
Then  he  bade  her  reach  forth  her  foot ;  he  looked  thereon,  and  said  :  '  A  foot  monstrous  and 
mickle  much  ;  but  one  may  give  no  heed  thereto;  such  must  be  put  up  with.'  Then  he 
bade  them  lift  up  the  kirtle,  and  now  he  saw  the  leg,  and  said  :  '  Fie  on  thy  leg  !  it  is  both 
blue  and  thick,  and  a  mere  whore  must  thou  be.'  And  he  bade  them  take  her  out,  'for  I 
will  not  have  her.'  " 

^  William  Morris  and  Eirikr  Magnusson,  The  Story  of  the  Ere-Dwellers,  London,  1892,  p. 
146 :  "And  by  then  it  was  hard  on  the  Yule-fast,  though  at  that  time  there  was  no  fasting 
in  Iceland." 

^Ihid.,  p.  79. 

^  "  King  Harald  came  to  Biorgvin  on  Yule-eve,  and  laid  his  host  into  Feoru-bights,  and 
would  not  fight  for  its  holiness'  sake"  {Heimskringla,  III.,  p.  321,  Story  of  Magnus  the 
Blind  and  Harald  Gilli);  and  III.,  p.  322:  "Only  three  days  in  the  Yule-tide  were 
holden  holy  from  smith's  work.  But  on  the  out-going  day  of  Yule,  King  Harald  let  blow 
the  host  to  give  way.  In  Yule-tide  nine  hundreds  of  men  had  gathered  to  King  Harald. " 
"  King  Hakon  was  in  Cheaping  through  the  Yule  ;  and  one  evening,  early  in  the  Yule-tide, 
his  men  got  to  blows  in  the  Court  Hall,  and  eight  men  came  by  their  death,  and  many  were 
Wounded.  But  after  the  eighth  day  of  Yule  there  fared  into  Elda  these  fellows  of  Hakon  " 
(Ibid.,  p.  415,  Story  of  Hakon  Shoulder-Broad,  chap.  xi.). 

*  "  He  went  out  of  King's  Rock  on  the  latter  part  of  Yule-tide  with  much  folk,  and  they 
came  to  Force  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  Yule.  He  stayed  there  for  the  night,  and  went  to 
matins  there  on  the  last  day  of  Yule,  and  the  gospel  was  read  to  him  thereafter ;  this  was  on 
a  bath-day"  {Ibid.,  p.  420,  Story  of  Hakon  Shoulder-Broad,  chap.  xiv.). 

^Heimskringla,  Vol.  II.,  p.  48,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  xxxix.  "  may  be  that  he 
will  sit  dovm  in  quiet  at  Steinker  over  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  50,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  xl. ; 

02 


212  YULE   AND   CHRISTMAS 

earlier  than  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century,  but  the  story  of  which 
is  laid  about  1050,  mentions  the  Yule-tide  in  a  general  kind  of  way  as  a 
festive  time.^ 


"  and  he  let  flit  into  the  houses  both  the  drink  and  the  victuals,  being  minded  to  sit  there 
Yule-tide  over,"  Ibid.,  p.  51;  "The  king  had  a  great  Yule-bidding,  and  bade  to  him 
many  wealthy  bonders  from  the  countrysides,"  Ibid.,  p.  79,  Sto7y  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  lix.; 
"This  winter  Eyvind  was  a  Yule-guest  of  King  Olaf,  and  took  good  gifts  of  him.  There  was 
also  with  the  king  at  the  time  Bryniolf  Camel,  and  he  had  for  a  Yule-gift  from  the  king  a 
gold-wrought  sword  and  therewithal  the  manor  called  Vettland,  the  greateSfof  chiefsteads," 
Ibid.,  p.  79,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap.  Ix.;  "a  little  before  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  149,  Stoiy  oj 
Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  xcii.;  "After  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  151,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  xciii.; 
"after  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  285,  Story  of  Olaf  the  Holy,  chap,  cxlviii. ;  "after  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p. 
296,  chap.  cli. ;  "after  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  337,  chap,  clxxii.;  "  Good  store  for  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p. 
361,  chap,  clxxxvii.;  "Forthwith  on  the  back  of  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  386,  chap,  cciii.;  "after 
Yule,"  Heimskringla,  Vol.  III.,  p.  i.  Story  of  Magnus  the  Good,  chap,  i.;  "after  Yule,"/3/a?., 
p.  266;  "When  it  drew  towards  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  39,  Story  of  Magnus  the  Good,  chap,  xxxi.; 
"A  little  ere  the  Yule-tide,"  Ibid.,  p.  50,  chap,  xxxvi. ;  "Those  cheapingsteads  where  ye, 
lord,  are  wont  to  sit  and  take  Yule-feasts,"  Ibid.,  p.  183,  Story  of  Harald  the  Hard-redy, 
chap,  cii.;  "the  earl  should  let  set  market  for  meat-cheaping  for  Sigurd  all  the  winter,  but 
this  went  on  no  longer  than  to  Yule,  and  then  meat  grew  hard  to  get,  for  the  land  is  barren 
and  an  ill  meat-land,"  Ibid.,  p,  250,  Story  of  Sigurd  Jerusalem  far er,  chap,  iv, ;  "close 
after  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  349,  Story  of  Ingi,  son  of  Harald,  chap,  ii.;  "this  folk  went  on 
as  if  nothing  was  so  needful  as  this  Yule-drinking,  and  that  might  in  no  wise  be  given  up," 
Ibid.,  p.  422,  Story  of  Hakon  Shoulder- Broad,  chap.  xv.  ;  "  Erling  arrayed  there  for  a 
Yule-feast,  but  the  Hising-dwellers  had  a  guild-ale,  and  held  their  fellowship  through  Yule- 
tide.  The  night  after  the  fifth  day  of  Yule,  Erling  fared  out,"  etc.,  Ibid.,  p.  460,  Story  of 
King  Magnus,  son  of  Erling,  chap.  xix. ;  ' '  But  when  Earl  Erling  had  news  of  this  flock,  he 
fared  with  his  host  into  the  Wick,  and  kept  to  his  ships  through  the  summer,  and  was  in 
harvest-tide  in  Oslo,  and  feasted  there  through  Yule,"  Ibid.,  p.  474,  Story  of  King  Magnus, 
son  of  Erling,  chap,  xxxi.;  "and  the  King  feasted  there  through  the  Yule-tide,"  Ibid.,  p.  484, 
Story  of  King  Magnus,  son  of  Erling,  chap.  xlii. 

^The  Saga  Library,  edited  by  William  Morris  and  Eirikr  Magnusson,  Vol.  I.,  London, 
1 89 1,  p.  114  :  "  Said  Hermund  :  'This  is  like  the  rest  of  thy  lying,  like  as  thou  saidest  in 
the  winter-tide,  Egil,  when  thou  camest  to  me  at  my  bidding  from  thy  wreck  of  a  house  at 
Burg  in  Yule-tide  :  and  right  glad  wert  thou  thereat,  as  was  like  to  be ;  and  when  Yule 
was  spent,  thou  grewest  sad,  as  was  like  to  be,  thinking  it  hard  to  have  to  go  home  to  that 
misery  :  but  I,  when  I  saw  that,  bade  thee  abide  still,  thou  and  another  with  thee  ;  and 
thou  tookest  that,  and  wert  fain  thereof:  but  in  spring-tide  after  Easter,  when  thou  wert 
come  home  to  Burg,  thou  saidst  that  thirty  ice-horses  had  died,  and  had  all  been  eaten 
by  us.'" 


SCANDINAVIAN  YULE  2,3 

There  is  no  statement  in  the  early  parts  of  the  Heimskringla  about  a  Thing 
being  held  at  Yule,  a  fact  which  alone  proves  that  it  was  no  old  offering- 
tide  ;  for  both  in  Germany  and  Scandinavia  the  two  things  went  together, 
being  merely  two  different  sides  of  the  three  annual  assemblies  of  the  men 
of  the  individual  tribes.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  however,  Yule-tide 
seems  to  have  been  used  for  public  announcements,  for  which  it  no  doubt 
was  fitted  by  the  fact  that  men  stayed  either  at  home  then  or  met  in 
larger  companies  at  the  principal  places  of  the  country.^ 

The  customs  of  Norway  were  transferred  to  Iceland  and  to  Greenland ; 
and  in  Greenland  Yule  was  held,  as  in  Europe,  for  a  number  of  days,  so 
that  the  Vblva  or  prophetess  could  within  the  holy  tide  visit  several  farms, 
some  of  them  more  than  a  day's  journey  apart-  Christianity  had  at  last 
tonquered  the  Scandinavian  tribes,  as,  half  a  millennium  before,  it  had 
won  over  the  Western  Germanics.  United  to  the  world  of  Roman  civilisation, 
it  forced  upon  all  its  subjects  a  uniform  system,  not  only  of  belief,  but 
also  of  rite  and  custom.  At  the  dawn  of  history  an  ancient,  inherited  unity 
of  intellectual  life  had  embraced  all  Germanic  tribes,  but  amidst  the  various 
economic  and  mental  environments  into  which  the  several  tribes  entered  in 
the  early  Middle  Ages  that  inheritance  of  the  East  was  irrevocably  lost.  It 
was  the  destiny  of  Christianity  to  create  a  new  mental  unity  for  the  Germanic 
world.  A  considerable  part  of  the  history  of  that  nation  is  contained  in  the 
two  words  :    Yule  and  Christmas. 


^When,  in  1262,  King  Hacon  of  Norway  heard  that  the  Scots  committed  all  kinds 
of  hostilities  in  the  Hebrides,  he  resolved  in  council  to  issue  in  winter  about  J61  an  edict 
through  all  Norway,  and  order  out  both  what  troops  and  provisions  he  thought  his  dominions 
could  possibly  supply  for  an  expedition  {Ribliotheca  Curiosa :  The  Norwegian  Account  of 
King  Haco's  Expedition  against  Scotland,  A.D.  1263.  Literally  translated  from  the 
original  Icelandic  of  the  Flateyan  and  Frisian  Mss.  By  the  Rev.  James  Johnstone,  A.M., 
and  edited  with  additional  notes  by  Edmund  Goldsmid,  Edinburgh,  1885,  p.  19). 

"^  Eirikssaga  raudha,  ed.  by  G.  Storm,  p.  14  ss.,  Eugen  Mc^k,  Ueber  Los,  Zauber  utui 
IVeissagung  bet  den  Gernianen  in  Kleinere  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte,  von  Doztnten  der  Leipziger 
Hochschuky  Leipzig,  1894,  p.  86  ss.  :  "In  a  farm  in  Greenland,  built  and  inhabited  by 
Icelanders,  there  lived  a  woman  named  Thorbjorg.  She  was  a  prophetess,  and  was  called 
Little  Volva.  She  was  wont  in  winter-tide  to  fare  from  one  Yule  banquet  to  another,  and 
everywhere  to  ask  for  those  men  who  wished  to  learn  their  future,  and  the  course  of  the 
new  year,"  etc. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


RESULTS. 


I.  Whilst  early  record  and  the  history  of  institutions  point  to  a  tri- 
partition  of  The  Germanic  Year,  etymology  is  in  favour  of  a  dual  division. 
This  seeming  contradiction  is  dissipated  by  the  fact  that,  although,  of  old, 
the  Aryans  divided  their  year  into  two  parts — winter  and  summer — only, 
they  early  took  over  a  year  of  oriental  origin,  which  consisted  of  six  tides 
of  three-score  days  each.  Two  such  tides  could  be  combined  to  form  thirds 
of  years,  as  three  to  form  halves  of  years.  Whilst  there  are  no  original 
Germanic  month-names,  there  is  ample  evidence  for  these  three-score- day 
tides.  Yule  was  one  of  them.  It  originally  extended  from  mid-November 
to  mid-January ;  among  the  Goths  of  the  sixth  century  it  covered  November 
and  December;  and  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  the  seventh  century, 
December  and  January. 

II.  The  Beginning  of  the  Anglo-German  Year  doubtless  was  not 
wholly  dependent  on  tradition,  but  was  to  some  extent  influenced  by 
climatic  conditions.  Whilst  all  Germanic  tribes  began  their  year  with  the 
beginning  of  winter,  the  Western  Germanics  in  Germany  and  Britain  began 
their  winter  naturally  somewhat  later  than  the  Northern  Germanics  did  in 
Scandinavia  and  Iceland.  The  latter  reckoned  their  annual  circle  as  com- 
mencing towards  the  middle  of  October;  the  former  began  theirs  towards 
the  middle  of  November.  Not  only  does  the  actual  winter  set  in  about 
that  time  both  in  Germany  and  Britain,  but  the  coupling  of  November 
and  December  in  Gothic  to  form  one  three-score-day  tide,  the  usage  attested 
by  urbarial  evidence,  and  the  conditions  of  pasture  life,  all  point  likewise 
to  a  beginning  of  the  Anglo-German  year  towards  the  15th  day  of  November. 


RESULTS  215 

III.  There  being  evidence  of  a  German  festival  in  the  first  half  of 
November  as  early  as  a.d.  14,  we  have  good  reason  to  regard  The  Feast 
OF  Martinmas  on  November  11  as  the  successor  of  an  ancient  Germanic 
festive  New  Year,  to  which  the  Synod  of  Auxerre  in  578,  forbidding  intem- 
perance on  that  day,  bears  further  testimony.  The  feasting  about  Martinmas 
even  in  the  later  Middle  Ages  possessed  a  higher  popularity  than  belonged 
to  any  other  similar  annual  feast. 

IV.  Martinmas  being  the  successor  of  the  ancient  Germanic  New  Year, 
it  is  not  strange  that  Martinmas  and  the  Tri-Partition  of  the  Year 
should  be  closely  connected.  Martinmas  is  the  oldest  legal  term  in  the 
A.S.  Laws,  and  appears  as  such  very  early  on  German  soil  also.  Mid-Lent 
and  Mid-July  were  the  other  two  legal  terms.  The  three  constituted  a 
division  of  the  year  into  three  equal  parts,  each  of  which  consisted  of  a 
long  hundred  of  days. 

V.  Martinmas  and  the  Dual  Division  of  the  Year  were  no  less 
closely  connected.  As  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  Martinmas  and 
Mid-May  were  German  terms,  and  they  are  still  the  prevalent  terms  in 
Scotland.  The  Frankish  May  fields  and  the  corresponding  celebrations 
instituted  by  the  Church  as  appropriate  to  the  beginning  of  November 
and  the  Rogation  days  together  point  in  the  same  direction.  It  was 
not  before  a.d.  755  that  the  latter  two  terms  were  superseded  by  March 
I  and  October  i. 

VI.  Martinmas  and  Michaelmas  were  the  two  popular  autumn  festivities 
for  which  Germanic  origin  has  been  claimed.  But  in  the  matter  of  age, 
Michaelmas  is  far  behind  Martinmas.  Whilst  excessive  Martinmas  festivities 
were  forbidden  so  early  as  a.d.  578,  the  ecclesiastical  festival  of  St.  Michael  on 
September  29  was  not  instituted  before  a.d.  813;  and  prior  to  the  seventeenth 
century  the  mentions  of  Martinmas  are  at  least  twice  as  frequent  as  those 
of  Michaelmas — a  fact  which  clearly  shows  the  respective  importance  of 
the  two  terms.  Michaelmas  term  owes  its  origin  to  the  Roman  quartering 
of  the  year.  Even  when  agriculture  grew  in  importance,  and,  consequently, 
the  harvest  festivals  received  an  ever-increasing  significance,  Martinmas,  as 
the  centre  of  the  slaughtering  time  of  domestic  animals,  for  ages  outshone 
Michaelmas  in  popular  splendour,  till  the  stock  of  grain  and  potatoes  under 


2i6  YULE  AND   CHRISTMAS 

cultivation  became  in  general  so  large  that  it  ceased  to  matter  very  much 
when  the  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine  were  killed. 

VII.  Whilst  Martinmas,  Mid-March,  and  Mid-July,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Martinmas  and  Mid-May,  on  the  other,  played  the  most  important  part 
as  terms  in  the  Germanic  year,  the  Germanic  tribes  knew  so  little  of 
Solstices  and  Equinoxes  that  they  had  not  even  names  for  them.  These 
conceptions  they  got  from  the  Romans,  and  the  different  words  which  the 
various  tribes  formed  to  express  these  ideas  are  mere  translations  of  the 
Roman  denominations.  There  never  was  a  Germanic  solstice  celebration, 
and  December  25,  the  pseudo-winter-solstice  of  the  Julian  calendar,  was 
no  Germanic  festive  day  until  after  the  contact  of  the  Germanic  tribes 
with  the  Romans. 

VIII.  The  first  severe  blow  which  the  Germanic  year  received  was 
from  the  Roman  year.  In  course  of  time  The  Calends  of  January 
became  the  beginning  of  the  year  on  Germanic  soil  as  well  as  in  the 
rest  of  the  world.  The  Calends  gifts,  the  Calends  fires,  the  Calends 
mummery  in  the  hides  of  animals,  the  Calends  branches  and  trees  are 
striking  instances  of  the  transference  of  customs  which  then  took  place  and 
which  came  to  form  the  centre  of  the  later  Germanic  celebrations  about 
the  shortest  day  of  the  year. 

IX.  On  the  basis  of  a  number  of  instances  of  sacrifices  on  tables 
occurring  about  the  end  of  December  and  the  beginning  of  January,  it  has 
been  supposed  that  a  Germanic  dead  festival  was  celebrated  about  that 
time.  But  these  offerings  were  mere  transformations  of  the  Tabula 
Fortunae,  a  most  important  feature  of  the  Calends-of-January  celebration 
over  the  whole  regions  from  Egypt  to  Rome  in  the  early  centuries  of  our 
era.  The  same  holds  for  the  New  Year's  cakes  connected  with  that 
Egyptio-Roman  custom. 

X.  The  Nativity  of  Christ  as  an  anniversary  owed  its  origin  to  Rome 
and  to  the  year  354,  its  evolution  being  clearly  traceable.  The  Dodeka- 
henieron,  the  time  between  Nativity  and  Epiphany,  was  one  of  its  oldest 
products.  In  the  sixth  century  a  new  era  was  begun  with  December  25 
of  the  753rd  year  of  Rome,  and  the  natural  outgrowth  of  this  was  the  moving 
of  the  New  Year  from  the  Calends  of  January  to  Christ's  alleged  birthday.^ 


RESULTS  2 I 7 

XL  One  of  the  most  important  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  the  Germanic 
division  of  the  year  is  the  treatise  of  Beda,  De  Mensibus  Anglorum, 
forming  chapter  xv.  of  his  book  De  Temporum  Ratione.  It  contains  some 
facts  of  great  antiquity,  among  them  the  names  of  two  Germanic  three- 
score-day tides,  Geola  and  Lida.  Some  of  Beda's  other  A.S.  month-names 
were  of  comparatively  late  growth.  Etymology  was  not  his  strong  point, 
and  no  great  weight  can  be  attached  to  his  interpretations  of  A.S.  words. 
What  he  describes  is  not  the  Germanic  year,  but  the  Romano-Christian 
year,  with  which  he  was  familiar.  He  was  not  aware  of  the  numerous 
contradictions  which  his  short  statement  contains.  Notwithstanding  his 
assertion  that  December  25  was  originally  called  Yule,  and  that  December 
and  January  from  it  received  their  names  as  the  earlier  and  later  Yulemonth, 
there  is  not  a  single  case,  prior  to  the  eleventh  century,  in  which  December 
25  was  called  Yule.  His  remark  that  the  ceremonies  practised  in  his  time 
among  the  Christianised  Angles  on  December  25  had  given  rise  to  its 
being  called  "the  mothers'  night,"  can  only  be  explained  as  teferring  to 
human  mothers  who  took  part  in  an  obscene  but  well-known  cult  in  honour 
of  the  Virgin.  It  cannot  denote  any  deities  styled  the  mothers,  for  when  he 
means  to  indicate  that  a  celebration  took  its  title  from  a  deity,  to  which  he 
supposed  it  to  be  devoted,  he  says  so  expressly. 

'^  XII.  Nativity,  Christes  M^ess,  and  Christmas  are  terms  which  show 
the  growth  of  a  regular  ecclesiastical  celebration  of  December  25  in  the 
centuries  that  followed  Beda.  Christ's  birthday  anniversary  became  from 
A.D.  800  the  great  day  for  state  ceremonies.  It  was  also  observed  as  a 
strict  Church  holiday.  Ordeals  and  oaths  were  forbidden  from  the  end  of 
the  tenth  century,  and  peace  was  ordained.  Up  to  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
century  the  Church  tried  to  make  Christ's  Nativity  as  joyous  a  time  as 
possible.  About  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  this  goal  seems  to 
have  been  reached,  for  then  the  Church  began  a  severe  struggle  against 
excessive  gaiety  at  Christmas.  Various  peculiarly  Christian  conceptions  and 
usages,  evolved  out  of  the  hymn  Rorate  Coeli,  generated  the  belief  that 
the  dew  of  the  night  between  December  24  and  25  was  specially  beneficent. 
Out  of  the  legend  that  in  the  actual  night  of  Christ's  birth  all  nature  had 
rejoiced,  all  trees  had  budded,  and  all  animals  had  talked  sprang  the  fancy 


2i8  YULE  AND  CHRISTMAS 

that  on  the  holy  anniversary  apple  trees  and  hawthorns  bloomed.  This 
combining  with  the  Calends-of-January  traditional  usage  of  setting  up  trees 
and  branches  led  at  last  to  the  Christmas  tree. 

XIII.  In  ancient  historical  times  The  Scandinavian  Year  began 
between  October  9  and  14,  and  was  halved  by  a  day  between  April  9 
and  14.  When  the  Roman  quartering  ot  the  year  gained  the  mastery,  the 
dividing  days  lay  between  January  9  and  14  and  June  9  and  14.  These 
days  alone,  and  under  no  circumstance  December  25  and  June  24,  could 
properly  have  been  called  midwinter  and  midsummer. 

XIV.  The  tri-partition  of  the  early  Scandinavian  year,  no  longer  recog- 
nisable in  the  oldest  runic  almanacs,  was  still  visible  in  the  Scandinavian 
Offering  Tides.  The  author  of  the  Heimskringla  remembered  quite  well 
that,  originally,  there  were  three  of  them,  although  he  was  not  quite  sure 
which  they  were.  As,  however,  in  the  early  parts  of  the  Heimskringla,  all 
great  festivities  recorded  up  to  a.d.  840  were  held  in  autumn  at  winter's 
beginning,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this,  held  about  October  9  to  14,  was 
one  of  the  three.  The  second,  held  between  February  9  and  14,  was  called 
Gbiblbt,  and  the  third,  between  June  9  and  14,  coincided  in  later  Iceland 
with  the  great  annual  assembly,  the  Allthing.  After  a.d.  840  a  Jbl  festival 
began  to  appear,  and  was  in  the  Heimskringla  up  to  a.d.  iooo  mentioned 
almost  as  often  as  the  autumn  festival.  Subsequently  it  rapidly  grew  in 
importance,  whilst  the  autumn  festival  was  merged  in  a  simple  St.  Michael- 
mas, and  Gbiblbt  disappeared  altogether. 

XV.  The  Scandinavian  Yule  festival  was  a  product  of  the  ninth- 
century.  It  arose  out  of  the  festivals  at  vetrnbttum  and  in  the  month  of 
Gbi  (October  9  to  14  and  February  9  to  14).  For  at  least  a  century  it  was 
celebrated  about  the  middle  of  January  (a  dividing-point  in  the  Roman 
quartering  of  the  Scandinavian  year),  and  it  was  King  Hakon  the  Good  of 
Norway  (a.d.  940-963)  who  first  ordered  its  celebration  on  the  same  day 
as  the  Christian  festival  of  the  Nativity.  By  this  act  the  Scandinavians  joined, 
in  an  important  point,  the  ritual  world  of  Christian  Western  Europe,  and 
recovered  part  of  that  intellectual  unity  with  the  other  Germanic  tribes  which 
had  been  lost  during  their  migration  time  in  the  early  Middle  Ages. 


Glasgow:   printed  at  the  university  press  by  robert  maclehose  and  co. 


OF       ...   J 


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APR  0  fi  1997 


JAN07  20n 


DEC  0  7  \m 


FORM  NO.  DD6, 


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